Huskies Drop BIG EAST Opener, 81-71,

Against West Virginia

Box Score [pdf]

Box Score [html]

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (December 30, 2006)— Senior forward Frank Young scored 22 points and freshman forward Da’Sean Butler added 16 points to lead West Virginia University to a 81-71 BIG EAST men’s basketball win over the University of Connecticut Saturday afternoon at WVU Coliseum.

With the loss, UConn falls to 11-1 on the season, 0-1 in the BIG EAST. The Mountaineers improve to 11-1 and are 1-0 in the league. The game was the BIG EAST opener for both schools. UConn now leads the overall series with the Mountaineers by a count of 11-3 and has a 10-2 edge in games as BIG EAST rivals. UConn falls to 5-2 at West Virginia.

UConn, playing its first road contest in 2006-07 after opening the season with 11 straight home games, was led in scoring on the day by freshman guard Doug Wiggins (East Hartford, Conn.) who scored a career-best 20 points and sophomore forward Marcus Johnson (Los Angeles, Calif.), who added 16 points.

The lead grew to 15 points, 60-45, with 11:00 to go in the game after UConn head coach Jim Calhoun was called for a technical foul. Young then hit a three from in front of the WVU bench to make the score 67-50 with 9:07 to play and the Huskies would never get closer than ten points the rest of the way.

The second half started much like the first, as the Huskies again struggled to get stops and continued to play from behind. The lead got back to double digits, 52-42, with 13:53 to play in the contest, forcing Calhoun to call a timeout. The Mountaineers increased that lead to 14 points, 56-42, with 12:44 to play.

The Huskies trailed at the half for the first time in 2006-07, shooting 38 percent from the field and allowing WVU to hit on 48 percent from the field, including five three-pointers. The biggest WVU lead of the period was 12 points and the Huskies only lead was a 1-0 in the first seconds of the game. Butler scored all 12 of his first half points in a span which saw the Mountaineers take that 12-point advantage, 21-9, with 11:42 to play.

Wiggins kept the Huskies in it during the half, coming off the bench to score 10 points, hitting a pair of three’s. UConn shot a woeful 7-of-16 from the free throw line in the first half, but did hit their last five from the line. The Huskies were also out-rebounded by a count of 20-19.

The Mountaineers took advantage of some early Husky shooting woes and three turnovers to take a 21-9 lead in the first eight minutes. WVU hit on three three-pointers in that stretch and only turned the ball over one time in jumping out to the lead. The Huskies then reeled off the next six points to cut the deficit to 21-15.

UConn returns to action on Jan. 2, 2007 with a 7:00 p.m. contest against the University of South Florida at the Hartford Civic Center. That game can be seen locally on WTXX-TV, Channel 20 and also broadcast on the UConn Radio Network with WTIC-AM 1080 as the flagship station.