Armstrong Nets 19 Points To Lead No.
4 Huskies Over Georgetown, 74-67
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Box Score [html]
HARTFORD, Conn.
(January 14, 2006) – Senior Hilton Armstrong (Peekskill, N.Y.)
was a dominant interior force as fourth-ranked Connecticut earned a hard-fought,
74-67 decision over Georgetown, Saturday afternoon, before a sellout crowd of
16,294 at the Hartford Civic Center.
The win, UConn’s
third in a row, improves the Huskies’ record to 14-1, 2-1 in the BIG EAST
Conference. The Hoyas drop to 10-4, 2-2.
Armstrong continued
his solid play of late with 19 points on eight of 10 shooting. Georgetown had no
answer in defending Armstrong when the Huskies were able to get the ball inside
to him. He added a game-high six blocks and grabbed five rebounds. The contest
was the sixth straight game that Armstrong has reached double figures in
scoring.
Although the
Huskies enjoyed the lead since the 13:15 mark of the first half, UConn was
unable to put away the pesky Hoyas until the final seconds. Josh Boone
(Mt. Airy, Md.) made a huge basket when he put back a missed UConn shot with
1:39 to play, but Ashanti Cook’s three-pointer brought Georgetown to within four
at 67-63, with 1:19 remaining. But Marcus Williams (Los Angeles, Calif.)
and Craig Austrie (Stamford, Conn.) combined to make seven of eight free
throws down the stretch to secure the win for Connecticut.
Williams added 14
points for UConn and registered eight assists, his most this season. Sophomore
Rudy Gay (Baltimore, Md.) had 12 points and five rebounds, while
Rashad Anderson (Lakeland, Fla.) broke out of his two-game shooting slump
with 12 points on five of nine shooting. The Huskies got a huge boost off of
the bench by freshman Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.). Adrien scored
eight points, and tied his career-high with a game-best 10 rebounds.
The Huskies shot a
season-high 60% (27 of 45) from the field, including 63% in the second half.
UConn harassed the Hoyas into three shot-clock violations, and limited
Georgetown to just 30% shooting in the opening half.
Brandon Bowman
scored a game-high 20 points for the Hoyas.
UConn will now take
to the road for a big Monday appearance at Syracuse. Game time is set for 9:00
p.m. and the game will be televised nationally by ESPN.
POSTGAME QUOTES
UConn Head
Coach Jim Calhoun
"I thought,
overall, we were pretty good today. I thought that the biggest breakdown we had
was defensively in the second half when they shot 50 percent and got 13
offensive rebounds. We just broke down and allowed some plays that shouldn’t
have happened. Beyond that, Georgetown is a terrific team. The big kid has
really, really improved. Jeff Green, I still maintain, is one of the best
players in this league, and I’m sure he’s going to show that. Last year, Bowman
was certainly a guy that could have gone to the League. I know he tried, but he
clearly has NBA potential. Their guards are very good, it’s a very athletic
team, and they run offense that make you work for the entire 35 second shot
clock."
"The thing we did
in the first half, particularly, was we got five either heaves at the end or
shot clock violations. So I thought our defense was very, very good. I
thought the press was good because it was more of a containment-type press than
a trapping press. We really weren’t looking, only occasionally, on the corner
beyond half court, for a trap. What that allowed us to do was press and not pay
a penalty of two on ones and that type of thing. It also took 10 seconds off
the shot clock. It also got them out of rhythm of just coming down and running
their offense every time from half court. They had to reset, and by that time,
many times, I looked up and it was 22 or 23 seconds by they got it to the
corner, brought it back out and ran their offense. And then you have to run it
much quicker. They do run their offense exceptionally well."
"Going on the road
to Syracuse at nine o’clock on Monday night, this is a really good win for us."
On inside game:
"Hilton Armstrong continues to grow and prosper. It’s just a terrific thing
for him, personally, and more importantly, it’s incredibly needed on this
basketball team. He is our inside threat right now. Our second inside threat
came off the bench and had eight and 10 in 18 minutes. If he plays a full game,
that’s 20 rebounds, and that’s Jeff Adrien. Jeff Adrien is making great, great
progress. I always go back to my veterans, as you know, and Josh had an OK
game. Nothing great nothing bad, but he could have had a better game in my
opinion. And he will. He’s just too good a player not to."
On guard play: "I
thought starting out with Craig and Marcus gave us some advantages,
quickness-wise. We got the ball up the court really quick in the first part of
the game. We got the pace of the game the way we wanted to … I think you’re
starting to see the effects of just playing more with Marcus Williams. He’s
been sensational."
UConn's
Hilton Armstrong
On his offense:
"I took my time and Coach told me to take my time and see what I have, make
the move when I’m around the rim. So it just came…It was like the game came to
me today."
On playing an
Old School BIG EAST game: "I really didn’t think about it too much, I just
knew it was a BIG EAST game and we already had one loss and we didn’t’ want
another one under our belt on our record in the BIG EAST."
On the crowd
cheering for him a lot: "I heard it coming up the court, it is part of the
game when I’m playing and they like what I’m doing, so I’m happy about that."
On playing
Syracuse Monday night: "That is going to be a big game for us, Syracuse is
our big rival, we are going to go out there and try to get another W. It is a
late game, everyone is going to be hyped for that game, it is going to be
something to watch."
UConn's Jeff
Adrien
On his getting
playing time: "I’m just earning my minutes, I knew I had the capabilities
to play here, and it was just a matter of going out and doing it. Finally I’m
doing it and I’m even more hungry to do even more, there are more things I can
do."
On his ability
to cover big men while being undersized: "It has always been that Way, I
have always guarded big people. It is something I have, something I was born
with I am thankful and grateful for it. Just go out and play hard, it doesn’t
matter what size you are or how big you are, it is like David with Goliath,
that’s how I see it. I don’t’ consider myself, small, I am very strong, and my
arms are real long and I can jump real good."
"I body them up to
try to get them off the block that’s what I’ve been learning, and use my
quickness to get around them."
UConn's
Marcus Williams
"We have a lot of
options on our team, if you shut down Hilton down you still have Josh, if you
shut Rudy down you have Rashad and Denham. We are difficult to guard, you can’t
key on one person."
Georgetown
Head Coach John Thompson III
"They are a very
good team, a very talented team. And because of that they have answers for
things that you do. When you play Connecticut you try to take away their
transition baskets, their second shot. You look at the stat sheet and they had
seven points in transition, probably pretty low for them, and six offensive
rebounds, which is also probably pretty low for them. But, at the end of the
day, they have very good players. We would make a run and their players would
make plays."
"In the second half
we did a decent job of dictating the pace and dictating the game. In the first
half, we did not do a good job of that. We were taking contested shots too
fast. In the second half, I think our shot selection got a little better. I
thought we got better looks. We ended up getting open shots, but a few key ones
didn’t go in."
"Their players
stepped up and made key plays. Every time we came down and cut it to five or
six, one of their guys would make a play."
On Hilton
Armstrong: "He’s a very good player. He can score down low, he can make a
shot, he’s long, he’s athletic and he has pretty good players around him."
"As a team, they
have answers. You can focus on one person, but they have someone else that is a
very good player that can step up."
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