Huskies Topped By Villanova In Gampel

Regular Season Finale

Box Score [pdf]

Box Score [html]

STORRS, Conn. (February 28, 2007) – Villanova University used a record-setting performance by freshman guard Scottie Reynolds as the Wildcats men’s basketball team held off the University of Connecticut, 78-74, Wednesday evening before a sellout crowd of 10,167 at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.

The loss, in Connecticut’s final home game of the regular season, drops the Huskies’ record to 17-12 overall, and 6-9 in the BIG EAST.  Villanova improves to 20-9, 8-7 in the loop.

Reynolds scored 40 points in the contest, including 20 in each half, and the Wildcats needed every point.  Villanova led by 10, at 63-53 with 5:51 to play before the Huskies roared back.  Sophomore guard Craig Austrie (Stamford, Conn.) hit a three-pointer, and Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.) and Jerome Dyson (Rockville, Md.) combined to make three free throws to bring the Huskies to within four, at 63-59. 

Reynolds made a pair of free throws to put the Wildcats back up six, but the Huskies would not go away.  Adrien made a jumper, and after a Villanova turnover, Dyson made one of two free throws, but Adrien controlled the rebound and the Huskies had a chance to tie.  Center Hasheem Thabeet (Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania) rebounded a three-point miss by Austrie and was fouled.  He made just one of two at the line, and the Wildcats scored the next six points to secure the win.

Reynolds’ scoring outburst was the most ever by a Connecticut opponent at Gampel Pavilion.  His 40 points eclipsed the 39 scored by Lindsey Hunter of Jackson State in the NIT in 1993.  Reynolds barely missed setting the BIG EAST Conference record for a freshman which was set by Seton Hall’s Marco Lokar, who scored 41 points.

Adrien continued his standout season by recording his league-leading 15^th double-double of the season.  He set his career-high with 20 points and yanked down a game-high 10 rebounds.  Dyson continued his offensive tear by scoring 20 points, the fourth time in five games he has scored at least 20 points.  He is averaging 21.8 points per game over that span.

Austrie had 10 points for the Huskies, while A.J. Price (Amityville, N.Y.) had six points and seven assists, without committing any turnovers.  Thabeet had seven points and nine rebounds.

Villanova led by six at intermission, 33-27, but the Huskies quickly sliced into the lead on back-to-back baskets by Marcus Johnson (Los Angeles, Calif.), but Reynolds scored eight points in a 10-0 Villanova run to put the Wildcats up 12, 43-31.

Connecticut continued to struggle from the foul line, making just 24-of-44 free throws.  The Huskies grabbed 25 offensive rebounds, and committed just nine turnovers, but shot 36 percent from the field.

Curtis Sumpter, who had a huge rebound and basket with Villanova nursing a one-point lead late in the game, added 18 points for the Wildcats, while Mike Nardi had 12.

Connecticut will conclude the regular-season portion of the 2006-2007 campaign when they travel to Washington, D.C. to play Georgetown on Saturday, Mar. 3.  Game time is set for noon and the game will be nationally-televised by CBS.

POSTGAME QUOTES

UConn Quotes

UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun

Congratulations to Jay and his team.  They came in fighting as they always have done.  This year they lead the Big East in rebounding, and they showed why.  The good thing is that we, eventually, got into the fight. 

We witnessed, I think, one of the best performances by not just a freshman, but by a basketball player.  Scottie Reynolds was absolutely terrific.  It’s unfortunate that we didn’t give the kind of help to the lane that we needed to, but it does not take anything away from Scottie Reynolds’ performance.  He made some incredibly difficult shots, he’s tough, he’s competitive.  He’s certainly one of the players in this league.  If he’s not in the first 10, then I don’t know basketball very well….and I think they got some gutty performances out of the rest of their kids.

I thought we fought like crazy to get a win, and then we didn’t have the discipline, nor the conviction to winning. 

We gave away 25 points.  All we had to do is get 12 of them to win ourselves a basketball game.  It is inexcusable that we can’t make foul shots when we make 80 percent in practice….Thank God those glass backboards are pretty sturdy or we likely would have broken them.  It’s inexcusable, and it’s why we’re 17 and 12.

We are not a bad basketball team.  We are a bad foul shooting team, for sure.  And we don’t have the kind of discipline that I would like to see.

Scottie was great and, certainly, he was the reason that they one – A.  And 1A, right beside it, was Connecticut’s inability to take advantage of 44 foul shots.  If we had made the foul shots, we would have been the ones ahead coming down the stretch, and we would have won that basketball game. 

Scottie was better than anybody on the floor….I haven’t seen a better performance by anybody this year.  He was sensational.

We had enough self-inflicted wounds by continually missing foul shots.  And when you do that, and work hard – we got 25 offensive rebounds – and then go to the line and come up empty, it’s a great, great deal of energy wasted.

A.J. Price

If we made some free throws, we’d have a couple more conference wins.  But we don’t and we don’t get those games back.  So the best we to do it know is prepare for the next game against Georgetown and get ready for the Big East tournament which we know we’re going to have to win if we want to play in the NCAA tournament.

We gave the game away tonight by not making free throws.  We left 20-something points up there on the board.  That’s the game right there for us.  There’s nothing more we can say.  Reynolds did a great job tonight scoring the basketball, but we still should have won the game. 

On Reynolds

I don’t think we did a good job of adjusting to try and stop him because it was not complex what they were doing.  They were doing the same thing since the first half which was pick-and-roll and make a play.  He was doing a great job of making plays and scoring the basketball.  He had 20 each half so we didn’t slow him down.  We didn’t do a good job of stopping him.

Where you surprised by Reynolds’ range?

We knew coming into the game he and Nardi were the two guys who basically had the green light to shoot from anywhere.  We saw that on tape.  So, we knew those guys had in the gym range.

Jeff Adrien

We lost by four and missed 20 free throws.  Who knows how much we could have won by?    

Jerome Dyson

On the missed free throws

It may be concentration.  I’m really not sure.  I just know we need to get in the gym and practice more.

We just need to practice getting over the screen and the pick and roll.  We let him (Reynolds) split us a lot which opened up everything for their whole team.

What’s the mood of the whole team?

Upset is probably the best word, because we know we could have won that game.

On Reynolds

Sometimes I had my hand right there next to the ball and he was still able to get it up and make the shot.  You can’t say much, he was making tough baskets.

Craig Austrie

I wish there were ten more games.  I think we’re starting to come together as a team and play together.  And guys know their rolls now.  So, I feel like if we had ten more games it would help us.  Unfortunately, we don’t.  We have one more and then we have to go down to the Big East and win all four.

Villanova Quotes

Villanova Head Coach Jay Wright

Anytime you can come in and get a road victory, it doesn’t matter who you play and where. It’s big.  That was big for us.  We always judge our program by how we play in the Big East.  That’s most important to us.

On Reynolds’ performance

We’ve been trying to get him to do that all year.  You’re not planning on getting 40, but you’re trying to get him to be aggressive.  The other guys know we’re trying to run stuff for him.  So, they’re not trying to get open.  They’re trying to get him shots.

There were times where Scottie was carrying us for a while.  Curt was in foul trouble for a long time.  We got Curt back in the game and we were able to go to Curt.  He made some big plays coming off the bench.

I’ll take 40 from a freshman anytime, but having seniors is what carries you through the ups and downs of a game and playing on the road.

On Sumpter’s performance

I thought Curt got some great looks tonight.  Believe it or not, Curt ends up with 18 but he had some great looks which he normally makes.  That’s fine.  But being a senior you still go for 10 rebounds and don’t foul with four fouls by jumping in front of somebody. 

Scottie Reynolds

On his 40-point performance

Stat wise it looks pretty good….. .I just did what the seniors, coach and my teammates told me--keep being aggressive.  I got into a little foul trouble.  I didn’t think I had it going, like I was unconscious or anything like that.  I was just out there playing.  [The credit] goes to my teammates….Everybody did a good job.  This team is on the verge of something special.

About fouling out

I was just hoping that we won.  I knew if  we didn’t [coach] would be all up in me after the game.  It’s something we’ve been working on, when I get into foul trouble.  For me to [foul out] it kind off like all the stuff we were working on went waste.  That’s what I was feeling.  I felt like I was going to let the team down. 

Curtis Sumpter

When you come to UConn or they come to us, you can expect a tough match-up inside.  You can expect a battle of the boards and guys all over the place.  That’s what I was focusing on.  I wasn’t focused on scoring a bunch of points.  I was just trying to do my best to keep those guys off the boards.

Coach did a good job of explaining how good they are on the rebounds, defensive field goal percentage and blocked shots.  They can do everything well.  Me, as a leader, I just wanted to come in and set the tone and try to keep those guys off the boards.