Brown Nets Career High As
Third-Ranked Huskies Upend No. 2 Villanova, 89-75
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 STORRS, Conn. (February 26,
2006) – Senior guard Denham Brown (Toronto, Ontario) set a
career-high for scoring and teamed with Rashad Anderson (Lakeland, Fla.)
to combine for 40 points to lead third-ranked Connecticut to a resounding 89-75
victory over second-ranked Villanova, Sunday afternoon before the usual sellout
crowd of 10,167 at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.
The win improves
the Huskies’ record to 25-2, and sends their conference mark to 12-2 and gives
UConn a share of the BIG EAST Conference lead. The Wildcats, who had an 11-game
win streak snapped, drop to 22-3 overall, 12-2 in the league.
Connecticut used
sizzling shooting in the second half to open up a tight affair and earn the
win. The Huskies shot 68 percent (15-of-22) from the field after intermission.
Villanova led 54-53 with 10:44 remaining before the Huskies scored the games
next nine points. Sophomore Rudy Gay (Baltimore, Md.) and junior point
guard Marcus Williams (Los Angeles, Calif.) sandwiched a set of two made
free throws around a big three-pointer by Anderson, before freshman forward
Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.) finished the run with an acrobatic jumper in
the lane. The Wildcats got no closer than seven the rest of the way.
Brown made 8-of-13
field goal attempts and was successful on half of his four three-point tries in
perhaps his best performance in a Connecticut uniform. Anderson made five of
seven from downtown, and set his career-standard with five offensive rebounds.
The veteran back-courters had plenty of company in the scoring column for the
Huskies. Gay finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, despite missing four
and a half minutes in the first half after being poked in the eye. Williams had
a terrific game running the point for the Huskies, registering his fifth
double-double of the season and the 11th of his career. He finished
with 10 points, all in the second half, and had 12 assists in 36 solid minutes
of action.
Three Husky
front-court performers also gave Connecticut solid contributions. Adrien had
nine points and eight rebounds off of the bench, while senior Hilton
Armstrong (Peekskill, N.Y.) had nine points to go along with a career-high
tying eight blocked shots. Josh Boone (Mt. Airy, Md.) had nine points
for the Huskies.
The Huskies shot 55
percent from the field, making 30-of-55 shots. They were particularly effective
from long-range, making 8-of-13 three-pointers. The Huskies made an effort to
pound the ball inside and were successful to the tune of 38 points in the paint.
Villanova was led
by Allen Ray and Randy Foye, who had 19 and 18 points respectively.
The Huskies will
now travel to Tampa, Fla. for their final road contest of the season, when they
play at South Florida on Wednesday evening. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m., and
the game will be televised locally by WB TV-20.
POSTGAME QUOTES
UConn Head
Coach Jim Calhoun
"A lot of times
when games are built up, sometimes they don’t fulfill their promise. think the
score is a little misleading. I think that game from a competitiveness
standpoint, from a toughness standpoint, from an atmosphere standpoint,
certainly more than fulfilled its promise."
"Jay Wright has
just done an incredible, incredible job. They may be, pound for pound, the
toughest team that we’ve played anywhere, anytime."
"Early in the game
we had to match their toughness."
"It was a tough,
tough game, and a great win for us."
"I thought we
increased our toughness, and that’s what we had to do to win."
"In the year 2006,
if their season ends before the Final Four, you’re going to have to be pretty
good to beat them. They’re good. We played them here in a great environment,
but they’re going to be awfully, awfully tough to beat….That’s a great team
heart."
"Unless you have a
tough team, not just a talented team, you cannot win the Big East."
On Denham Brown
"Denham had,
arguably, the best game of his career at a good time….Denham was outstanding
..."
On Rudy Gay
"The eye really
knocked him off. I happened to watch the Vargas fight last night and watched
his eye closing. It wasn’t quite that dramatic, but we did have our cut man
working on it….He responded well in the second half after being very leery after
he got hit. And I don’t blame him. The scratch there is pretty good."
On Jeff Adrien
"I think we went on an 18 to 3 run
when Jeff Adrien went in. All of a sudden the game changed. When he got a
rebound, nobody was going to try to grab it away from him. For a freshman to go
in and make that kind of a stand is very significant."
Marcus Williams
On the “bullies” comment by Villanova:
I think some of us took that to heart, especially Jeff. It’s kind of like
calling someone out, like if they want to fight. We started to see them pushing
us and fouling us and the refs weren’t calling it. We took the initiative to
give it back.
On what they did today that was different than the last game vs. Villanova:
I think we kept penetration to a limit, closed down the shooters and hit the
defensive glass as well. We ran our offense. Denham and Rashad played a great
game for us.
On the play of Jeff Adrien:
I wouldn’t say I was surprised. At this kind of game, Jeff always comes
through…he’s a man-child out there. He was clearing the glass, moving his way
through the paint getting buckets. That’s normal, that’s what I see all of the
time.
On differences between two games: The first time we played them we didn’t
expect to play the way they did. We hadn’t faced it; they had a new team,
different team, 4 guards. Then we studied a little film, we’ve seen their
strengths and weaknesses…and we exploited them.
On rest of season: We still have to go out there and focus. It was a big win
for us, but we still have 2 games left, South Florida and Louisville to close
out. We are going into the BIG EAST tournament strong.
Jeff Adrien
On South Florida coming up next: They are going to be hungry with UConn
coming in. A lot of schools are like that when UConn comes in, they play their
best game. We are going to be ready for South Florida, and take one game at a
time. The ball is our hands, we are just going to go out there and play
basketball.
I like games like that, physical games. It is something that is part of me,
people say I’m undersized but I don’t’ think so. I still have to go out there
and play 10x harder.
On Villanova saying they were the bullies of the conference: We read it
before the game, we didn’t even know about it until this week. But it really
fueled me up, I was like wow, one game and now they were talking about being the
big bullies of the BIG EAST. Think what you want to think but you still have to
go out there play basketball. If you are talking about it, you have to back it
up.
On the crowd: Around here the noise is much louder, in the smaller dome. The
noise stays right there on the court. They are our sixth man out there so it was
really good. Thanks to them.
Rudy Gay
On getting poked in the eye: Actually two people hit me in the face; just one
hit me in the eye. I couldn’t see out of it for a long time, most of the first
half. It kind of bothers you but if you are trying to win a game you aren’t
worried about it you have to put it behind you.
After that game you have to be scrappy, with the size advantage you have to
do things like that. Hustle points, things like that. It was a tough game and
I’m glad to have it behind us.
On team playing with toughness: I think it shows we stepped up to the task.
They came out like they were tough, they smacked and held and stuff and we did
the same thing and that’s how we showed them.
Josh Boone
They came in with the mentality that they are the toughest team in the BIG
EAST and we came in with the same one. It was just a matter of us matching that
same intensity and giving it right back to them.
It doesn’t matter. You have to prove yourselves every game. It doesn’t matter
what your reputation in the league is or anything, every team is going to come
at you the same way, especially when you have a high ranking. They beat us last
time and they probably didn’t respect us as much because of that. We came in and
we tried to match their intensity and match their level of play.
On what they take out of this game: Out of this game, we know how tough we
are now.
Rashad Anderson
Anytime in the game, we always feed off each others instincts. When
somebody’s hot, we always make sure they get the ball. Everybody’s got to help
each other out. That’s what we did tonight, collectively as a group.
On Denham Brown’s dunk
I almost got a technical foul because I almost came on the court. And then I
said, ‘let me back up a little bit.
On the physical nature of the game
It was fun. Fun.
What was the difference between this game and the last one against Villanova?
We played hard and we executed – bottom line. We played harder and we wanted
it more.
Denham Brown
On playing against 4 guard offense: We went over it a lot in practice, to try
to hedge everything. We made some adjustments from last game.
On Villanova’s bully comment: I think today’s game speaks for itself. We are
just as tough as any team in the league. We just go out and play. We play hard,
we play tough and we are a talented team.
On blocks: I’m not going to try to do something that’s out of my range or
that would get me into foul trouble. If I go for a block my man can get a
rebound because I’m out of position for that. I have to pick and choose.
Randy Foye is a great player, I like him. Allan Ray is an amazing shooter.
Great competition, especially in the BIG EAST. Having the two of them on the
same team is a great combination for guards.
On Jeff Adrien’s play: He stepped up big for us today, tremendous. The
rebounds he had, a couple of baskets. He is a beast. To me he’s the bully of the
BIG EAST…especially as a freshman; it will be scary to see him in a couple of
years.
We are tougher than a lot of people give us credit for because we are so
talented. I think a lot of our guys are tough physically and mentally.
Coach said this is just like any other game; it was a game to win. But us
players really had a bull’s-eye on this one, we circled it, got all the arrow to
it, did all of that work and made sure that we stayed focused and got ready for
this game.
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