Price Scores 24 As No. 15 Huskies Outlast

West Virginia, 79-71

Box Score [pdf] [html]

Statistics [pdf] [html]

HARTFORD, CONN. (March 1, 2008) – Junior guard A.J. Price (Amityville, N.Y.) scored 24 points and the No.15 nationally-ranked University of Connecticut men’s basketball used some hot first half shooting and was able to hold on and defeat West Virginia, 79-71, Saturday afternoon before a sellout crowd of 16,294 at the XL Center.

The Huskies are now 23-6 on the season, 12-4 in BIG EAST play. The Mountaineers drop to 20-9, 9-7 in the conference.

Connecticut led by as many as 17 points four times in the game before West Virginia mounted a spirited comeback to get within three, at 66-63, with 4:16 remaining on a lay-up by John Flowers. However, after a Connecticut timeout, the Huskies reasserted themselves as Craig Austrie (Stamford, Conn.) hit two free throws and Stanley Robinson (Birmingham, Ala.) followed with a long three-pointer to put Connecticut ahead by eight, 71-63, with 3:25 to go. West Virginia was able to get no closer than six the rest of the way.

Price made half of his 14 field goal attempts, on his way to a career-high five made three-pointers. He made all five of his free throws as well. Junior Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.) extended his active BIG EAST-leading total of career double-doubles to 32, by scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

Also in double figures for Connecticut were Robinson and Austrie, who each scored 12 points. The Huskies got a huge lift off of the bench by sophomore guard Doug Wiggins (East Hartford, Conn.) in the first half. He entered the contest at the 15:10 mark and immediately had a big impact on the contest. The Huskies scored on five of their next six possessions as Wiggins had an acrobatic lay-up and four assists, to turn a 10-8 deficit into a 21-15 lead.

In all, The Huskies went on a 30-11 run to take a 34-21 lead with 5:29 to play before intermission. The Huskies led at the break, 42-29 after shooting a season-high for one half 63 percent (15 of 24). Wiggins finished with five points and a career-high six assists in 11 productive minutes.

The Huskies were able to overcome a terrific performance by West Virginia’s Joe Alexander, who scored 32 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. He made 14-of-24 shots from the field. Alex Ruoff added 12 points for the Mountaineers.

Connecticut also received a solid contribution off of the bench by sophomore Gavin Edwards (Gilbert, Ariz.), who scored seven points and grabbed three rebounds. The Huskies made nine-of-15 three pointers and shot 51 percent for the contest.

The Huskies will play their final road game of the 2007-2008 season on Thursday, March 6, when they will travel to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center to play Providence College. The game will be nationally-televised by ESPN, starting at 7:00 p.m.

POSTGAME QUOTES

UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun | WVU Head Coach Bob Huggins

UConn Players: A.J. Price | Craig Austrie | Gavin Edwards | Doug Wiggins |

Jeff Adrien | Stanley Robinson

 

UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun
That would be two games in a row that, at times, I really enjoyed our offense…. I thought we played very good offense again today, until the end of the game where, I think, because we’ve played in so many close games, that, even up six or seven we were playing it like a two-point game with a minute to go. That kind of slowed us down.

And then we had no answer for Alexander. He’s a terrific player….He was just a handful today.

We did have an answer for Ruoff. I think Craig did a great job on him, especially down the stretch where he usually kills people with threes.

I think we did a nice job on Nichols, and I think Stanley did a nice job on Butler.

The long rebounds – it’s an adjustment kind of thing. We’ve just rebounded three or four games in a row very well, and now we get beat on the long rebounds again. We just have to be more active on them.

I thought Gavin gave us a real spark. And if I had to do it over again, Dougie Wiggins would have played more minutes. Dougie’s a real spark. I was trying to match the two of them today…to try to get the thing going.

It’s good to see us play good offense. It’s a little disappointing that we let up a little bit.on defense. The offensive part is kind of natural to some degree because we’ve played in so many close games.

Overall, I thought we covered the spread offense very well. It was just down the stretch that we didn’t do as good of a job on penetration, and on (Alexander).

We’ve come a long way since the Northeastern game, 69-60. This team has come a long way, with different guys, maybe than we could have predicted, have emerged. I’m encouraged.

West Virginia Head Coach Bob Huggins

They jumped on us in the first half.  We didn’t respond the way we needed to respond, in the first half. 

They’re good.  I told our assistants, “Good teams, you have open shots, you make them.”  They make open shots.  They can throw it close.  They defend the rim.

We waited too long.  That’s about what it comes down to. 

Our problem is, we’re not consistent enough.  You don’t know.  Wellington Smith has been one our better players the last three or four games, and he didn’t play very well today.  We lack some consistency.  And we’re young.  Thank God we have Darris Nichols, but the rest of our guys are young. 

What did you do differently in the second half?
Actually try to guard them, I think.

They’re good.  They’re really good.  And there’s a bunch of them.  That’s the thing.  He’s got a bunch of them.  And when somebody doesn’t play very well, he just goes to the next guy.  And that’s what you’re supposed to do.  That’s a tremendous credit to Jim and what he’s done with the program.  We’re going to get there.  We’re not there now.  I look down there, and I’m like…I don’t even want to look some days.  But we’ll get there. 

On Big East

There’s really, really good players in the league, but there’s really good coaches.  You don’t ever go in and say “Yeah, we might be able to trick this guy.” Everybody in this league coaches.

A.J. Price

The next step for us is learning how to finish teams off.

Why were they able to come back?

I don’t think it was what we weren’t doing.  It was what they were doing.  They did a great job defensively.  They were switching everything.  They were really alert on defense and made it really hard for us to get into any type of good rhythm on offense.

Even though they made a good run and came back, we were still confident that we were going to win the game.  We knew that as long as we got stops we would win. 

Craig Austrie

As the games are won, we’re becoming more and more confident, feeding off each other, and we’re learning to play with each other much better as the game goes along.

On his fade-away shot off the glass as the shot clock wound down

I just wanted to get into the paint and get a shot off up to the rim because the shot clock was going down.

Do you like the four-wide offensive set?

I like isolation plays.  Being a guard, you want to isolate and show what you can do.  And I love having the ball in my hand and be the one they counted on to make the play.

Have you been able to put teams away since Villanova?

The Villanova game we lost was a good game for us.  It opened our eyes and really gave us a wake-up call. 

Gavin Edwards

On getting increased playing time

I just have to keep playing my game.  I can’t really worry about when Coach is going to play me or not.  I just have to keep playing.  Coach told me after Curtis got hurt that it was a bog opportunity for me and I have to capitalize on it.  That’s what I’m trying to do know.

Is your intelligence on the court one of your greatest assets?

I think so.  I just try and be in the right place at the right time.

Pretty much every time that I’m open A.J. will find me.  So I just try and get as open as I can and make myself available to him.

Doug Wiggins

Our focus is to get better each and every game.  That’s our motivation.

We’re gelling right now.   We have experience under our belts.  That’s helping us out a lot.  We’ve been winning, and we like that feeling.

We’re proving ourselves game after game. We bounced back after the loss to Villanova.

Jeff Adrien

We’ve gotten good at winning those close games.  Now we have to find a way to put a team away.

These games are real critical.  We’re still trying to win a Big East Championship.  We’re going to fight every game.

On the Big East

It’s the toughest league in the country.  It prepares teams like us, and Georgetown, and Louisville for the NCAA tournament.

Stanley Robinson

All of us, we came together.  We played as a team through the stretch.  I say Price stepped up big.  Craig Austrie knocked down a couple of threes.  Everyone was just on today.  People came off the bench like Gavin Edwards, Doug Wiggins, and everybody just clicked.

The X-factor on our team has got to be Hasheem.  He’s the main tempo and he gets things started.  He protects our paint.