Huskies Take Down Assumption In Exhibition Play

Box Score [pdf] [html]

STORRS, Conn. (November 1, 2007) - Junior A.J. Price (Amityville, N.Y.) scored 22 points off of the bench as the University of Connecticut men's basketball team defeated Assumption College, 90-75, Thursday evening in the exhibition opener for both teams.

Price scored 16 points after halftime in leading the Huskies in scoring. He made six of 11 field goal attempts, and was a perfect nine-for-nine from the foul line. Junior forward Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.) registered a double-double in the game, scoring 12 points while yanking down a game-high 15 rebounds. Eleven of Adrien’s rebounds were on the offensive glass.

The Greyhounds gave the Huskies all they could handle in the opening stanza, trailing just 10-9 at the 15:34 mark of the first half. Connecticut then went on its first extended scoring spurt of the contest, outscoring the Greyhounds 12-4 over the next four minutes as Stanley Robinson (Birmingham, Ala.) had back-to-back dunks to key the run. The Huskies were held scoreless for the next four minutes, but used a 16-3 free throw advantage in the first half to take a 43-34 lead into halftime. Junior Craig Austrie (Stamford, Conn.) led the Huskies with 10 points at intermission.

Both clubs played better offensively in the second half, as the two squads combined to make 11 three-pointers in the period. Assumption got within six, at 47-41, but the Huskies responded with a 21-10 run to put the game away.

Connecticut out-rebounded their smaller opponents, 60-33, led by Adrien. Price and Curtis Kelly (Bronx, N.Y.) each had nine rebounds for Connecticut. The Huskies had 27 offensive rebounds that led to 28 second-chance points.

Sophomore Jerome Dyson (Rockville, Md.) scored 18 points for the Huskies, while Austrie finished with 12 points. Price had a game-high seven assists for Connecticut.

Mike Baldarelli led the Greyhounds with 16 points.

Connecticut concludes the exhibition portion of its 2007-2008 season when it plays host to Bryant College on Sunday, Nov. 4. Tip-off is set for 1:00 p.m. and the contest will be played at the Hartford Civic Center.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Head Coach Jim Calhoun | A.J. Price | Jeff Adrien | Jerome Dyson

UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun

I thought Assumption did a great job of playing five guys out. It certainly gave us a lot of problems. That same offense is exactly what Memphis runs, except Memphis has a little different type of player coming at you. I thought Assumption was good. I thought they stuck with their offense even though they got down 20, 21, 22, and came back at us -- they weren’t going to beat us, necessarily, in the second half because we had that good streak of running the basketball, but I thought they played well.

Last year, no one scored 74 points against us. Georgetown, a Final Four team…you can go right through the list. No one scored 74 points against us.

I thought our defense was worse than atrocious….I thought that we thought that we had solved some problems, or were living off of what we did last year. We were unwilling to step up over screens on those dribble screens, and the back door cuts and got beat continuously. We made up for some of that with our shot blocking, but I thought we had some awful performances as a team.

I thought AJ Price was sensational. I thought he was the difference in the game for us. He got us going, split. He just made good basketball plays and played very good defense.

I thought Jerome Dyson’s points were OK, but his defense was God awful.

Jeff gave us a great effort but didn’t finish the way he’s supposed to.

I walked by their kids after the game, and I swear to God, no one was as big as me. And we have 7-3, a couple of 6-9 guys, and they turned layups into adventures. And that to me was remarkable after watching this team practice 17 times.

So, I’m not writing the season off, I’m not writing the season on. If we played better I would tell you the truth. We just didn’t play very well.

I am very disappointed by the fact that our big guys shot 28 percent. I’m really disappointed with 27 offensive rebounds – we didn’t do much with it.

I think we showed signs of breaking well. That 10-minute stretch in the second half I thought we were very, very good offensively. I thought we never were good defensively.
 

UConn Guard A.J. Price

On the three guard line-up

The pace picked up to more of our liking.  I think we put more pressure defensively on them at that time when we had the three guard line-up.

The first half it took us a long time to pick the tempo up the way we want to be playing which is much faster.

On the problems with the defense tonight

Our close-outs were not good at all.  When they kicked the ball back out, we were finding them but not under control.  And they were doing a good job of up-faking and going around people, and once they got in the middle they were making plays.  They made some tough shots as well. 

I think defensively we all have to get together as a unit and understand that we can help each other out.  And once we help, somebody’s got to have our back and make the next play.

UConn Forward Jeff Adrien

We’ve got to go back to work and execute on things we’re usually good at and that’s playing defense.  Defense is something you’ve got to want to do.

You’ve got to give Assumption credit.  Their offense is really tough to play.  They had a bunch of shooters out there.   All five players on the court could shoot.  It’s tough to play.

We’ve got to go out there and work on scoring more down low, being physical and taking balls to the rim.

UConn Guard Jerome Dyson

On the effort tonight

At this point last year we were struggling with our offense.  Right now, we’re struggling with our defense.  We have to keep the man in front of us better and play more of a team defense.

We know how good we are we.  We just haven’t been able to show it.  Once we do I think we’ll get a lot of people off our backs.

I think our performance was good.  But, defensively we’ve got to give a better effort.  We had a lot of instances where we let our man get passed us.  We’ve got to do a better job of just keeping our man in front of us.