Hitting the wall
Bouknight, Huskies run out of steam in loss to Villanova
In the first 11 minutes of play on Saturday, James Bouknight scored 14 points and ran UConn Nation through the gamut of emotions: thrilled to see him possibly top his 40- point game against Creighton two months earlier, scared witless when he fell to the floor and banged his surgically- repaired left elbow.
Bouknight hit 6 of his first 7 shots, including a pair after returning to the game following his fall to the floor. After that, however, the sophomore All- American candidate hit just one of his final 10 shots — a relatively meaningless 3- pointer with 36 seconds left to play.
Blame the elbow, Villanova’s swarming defense or fatigue. Dan Hurley chose the latter.
“And as he got tired,” the UConn coach noted, “he probably tried to do a little bit too much.”
Bouknight said his elbow was fine, admitted some fatigue, but added: “I mean, I pushed through it, I played through it, so I’m not using that as an excuse.”
Either way, Bouknight was held in check, no other Huskies really stepped up, and 10th- ranked Villanova snared a 68- 60 victory at Philadelphia’s Finneran Pavilion that put a pin to UConn’s NCAA tournament momentum before it even got much traction.
“Tough game, tough loss,” Hurley said. “Credit Villanova. They were just really, really good defensively. They made far less mistakes than we did. They made all the critical plays in the last eight minutes of the game, where it’s a one- possession game.
They were able to extend it to 10 and take advantage of some things.”
Make no mistake, UConn ( 10- 6, 7- 6 Big East) is still in the NCAA tourney picture. The Huskies don’t have much room for error with just four Big East games remaining, however, and may have to make some noise at the league’s championship tournament at Madison Square Garden.
Meanwhile, Villanova ( 14- 3, 9- 2) showed it isn’t about to relinquish its Big East supremacy so easily.
“We’ll be better, by the time the Big East tournament rolls around,”
Hurley promised. “Hopefully, we get a chance to play ( Villanova) again.”
If that happens, the Huskies hope not only to have Bouknight in better shape, but also to have other players step up. No one else really did that on Saturday.
R. J. Cole was the only other UConn player in double figures with 10 points, but was ineffective in the first half after picking up two early fouls and shot just 2- for- 10 for the game.
“That kind of took away the possibility of us getting that second scorer that we probably needed,” Hurley said of Cole’s early foul issues.
Some of the other candidates also struggled. Tyrese Martin snared 11 rebounds but missed all four 3- point attempts and finished with nine points. Adama Sanogo had limited touches for eight points, Jalen Gaffney had a quick five- point spurt off the bench but nothing else.
Andre Jackson fouled out with two points and three rebounds in 16 minutes. Tyler Polley scored three points in 25 minutes, Isaiah Whaley two points in 21 minutes. Akok Akok played just four minutes and took just one shot.
“We’ve got to get more contributions,” Hurley said. “We’ve got to get a better flow to our game.”
“We were just a step slow offensively,” Bouknight added. “Coach emphasized that we can’t make that many mistakes. We made too many mistakes.”
Villanova led 34- 32 at halftime despite Bouknight’s early brilliance. UConn briefly re- gained the lead a little less than five minutes into the second half after Cole tied the game with a 3- pointer, then Bouknight hit one of two free throws for a 40- 39 edge.
Jeremiah Robinson- Earl followed with a pair of free throws, but Sanogo countered with an inside hoop. That would be the Huskies’ last lead.
Collin Gillespie scored on a baseline drive, Robinson- Earl hit a pair of foul shots and the Wildcats gradually pulled away. A Gillespie 3- pointer with 3: 18 left put ‘ Nova up 10.
The Huskies got back to within five after a Cole 3pointer and a Sanogo inside hoop, but Gillespie countered again with a 3- pointer with 91 seconds left.
“That iced the game,” said Hurley.
Gillespie finished with 20 points, though those late 3- pointers were his only two of the game. The 6- foot- 3 senior gaurd with nationalchampionship pedigree killed UConn all day with “brutal backdowns” on the low post that are tough to guard with the threat of him kicking it back out to 3- point shooters.
Robinson- Earl added 17 points and 11 boards, and Justin Moore and Jermaine Samuels chipped in with 11 points each in a typically well- balanced Villanova scoring attack.
Neither team shot the ball overly well from either the 3- point or the foul line. UConn turned the ball over just 10 times, but Villanova just eight.
“Gillespie’s 3’ s were huge, he was tremendous,” Hurley said. “Robinson- Earl was tremendous. Credit to those guys. Just really mature, and they didn’t make a lot of mistakes.”
The good news for UConn: Bouknight’s elbow came out of the game fine, something that looked questionable at one point. And there is still time to make a late- season NCAA tournament push. Just not a whole lot of time “We don’t have much of a runway,” Hurley noted, “to get our act together.”