Brown, Boone Lead Second-Ranked Huskies Over USF, 66-53

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TAMPA, Fla. (March 1, 2006)— The University of Connecticut men’s basketball team scored the first 18 points of the game and then held off a furious University of South Florida rally in the second half en route to a 66-53 win over the Bulls Wednesday in front of a crowd of 9,636 at the Sun Dome.

With the win, UConn improves to 26-2 on the season, 13-2 in the BIG EAST. USF falls to 6-22, 0-15 in the league.

Senior Denham Brown (Toronto, Canada) and junior Josh Boone (Mt. Airy, Md.) led the Husky effort on the night. Brown totaled 16 points, while Boone had 17 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks. Junior Marcus Williams (Los Angeles, Calif.) led the Huskies with eight assists on the night and freshman Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.) finished with six points and seven rebounds, including several huge baskets in the final six minutes.

UConn extended a 13-point halftime lead back to 18 points at 36-18 early in the second half, but the Bulls responded, cutting the deficit to ten, 41-31, with less than 14 minutes to play in the contest. USF would get within five on three occasions before a Solomon Jones bucket with 9:30 to play cut the deficit to three points at 45-42. It would be as close as the Bulls would get.

UConn held the Bulls scoreless for the first 7:43 of the contest. Junior Melvin Richardson scored the first USF points with a pair of free throws at the 12:17 mark of the first half to make the score 18-2 in favor of the Huskies. Richardson added the first USF field goal of the contest 29 seconds later at the 11:48 mark of the stanza.

The Huskies led by a score of 31-18 at the half, taking advantage of the 18-0 start to overcome a spirited Bulls effort over the final 12 minutes of the half. The Huskies held USF to 20.0 percent shooting from the field,  but hit only 3-of-20 shots themselves over the final 12 minutes to allow the Bulls to get as close as nine points in the half.

UConn returns to action on Saturday, March 4 when it hosts Louisville at Gampel Pavilion at 2:00 p.m. The game is the final regular season contest for both schools and will be televised live nationally by CBS with Jim Nantz and Billy Packer calling the action. The game can also be heard live on the UConn Radio Network and its flagship station WTIC-AM 1080, with Joe D’Ambrosio and Wayne Norman calling the plays.