Huskies falter in 2nd half
UConn men’s offense stalls in loss to 10th-ranked Villanova.
There were moments and stretches on Saturday where the UConn men’s basketball team looked well on its way to fulfilling head coach Dan Hurley’s iconic ”it’s coming” speech, in which he said “people better get us now” after a narrow loss to
Villanova last season.
But in the second half of a rematch of the two classic
Big East foes, the Huskies
(10-6, 9-6 Big East) lacked the winning plays needed, as a stalled offense turned a two-point halftime deficit into a 68-60 loss to the No. 10 Wildcats (14-3, 9-2) at Finneran Pavilion in Villanova, Pa.
Sophomore James Bouknight led UConn with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Collin Gillespie led Villanova with 20 points.
“Tough game, tough loss,” Hurley said.
“Credit to Villanova. They were just really, really good defensively. Made far less mistakes than we did. They made all the critical plays in the last eight minutes of the game.”
UConn slid two spots to 36th in the kenpom.com college basketball ratings with the loss, and sits fourth in the Big East. Prior to the loss, UConn was 29th in ESPN’s college basketball power index.
With four games remaining in the regular season, Hurley said the team is still confident.
“We’ve got a chance to put something together down the stretch here,” Hurley said. “We don’t have a lot of time, and we don’t have much of a safety net. We’ve got to win down the stretch here.”
After outshooting the Wildcats 42.8-41.3 in the first half, UConn went cold in the second, shooting just 29.6. Freshman Adama Sanogo (eight points) hit a turnaround hook shot with 14 minutes to go in the game to give the Huskies a 42-41 lead, though that was the last time UConn held an advantage.
Villanova went on a 14-5 run after Sanogo’s bucket, with Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (17 points) scoring six in that spurt, to pull away. After Sanogo hit a jumper at the 10:46 mark of the second half, UConn went 7:05 without a field goal. Bouknight credited Villanova’s team defense as they “loaded up on whoever had the ball.”
Hurley said Bouknight was “bruised up, banged up” and fatigued in the second half, and that he tried to do a “little too much.” Bouknight, who played in just his second game after an eightgame layoff because of an elbow injury, , admitted he was tired, but said it’s not an excuse for his 1-for-8 shooting in the second half.
“I pushed through it, I played through it, so I’m not going to use it as an excuse,” he said.
As Bouknight struggled to score in the second half, UConn’s offense did too. The Huskies made just 8 of 27 shots (3-for-12 from three) in the second half as the Wildcats pulled away. Hurley said that the team is different with Bouknight back in the lineup, and needs to redevelop its cohesionwithfourgamesremaining.
“We don’t have much of a runway to get our act together,” Hurley said. “We don’t play fantasy basketball. We’ve got to develop chemistry and feel again, and a flow. Guys have to learn to play off each other better. [Bouknight] has been back literally for five days. He doesn’t have to apologize for us being really choppy offensively. We’ve just returned this player. We just need a little bit of time to get our timing and execution down.”
Said Bouknight, “Definitely moving the ball, just sharing it, and playing together on offense. And off the court, just staying together. It’s a culture thing.”
UConn pulled within five points with just under two minutes to play, but Gillespie drilled a deep 3-pointer with 1:31 left to extend Villanova’s lead to eight. Bouknight hit a 3-pointer with 36 seconds left to pull within six points of the Wildcats, though it was too late for UConn to muster a comeback.
“He’s a heck of a player, hell of a leader,” Hurley said of Gillespie.
Bouknight scored 10 of the team’s first 12 points in the first half, but a hard fall appeared to aggravate the left elbow injury thatkept him out for eight games. He spent a few moments on the bench, but returned and scored immediately, and had 14 of UConn’s first 21 points.
Bouknight said his elbow felt fine, and that he wasn’t worried at all. He was kept off the board for the final nine minutes of the half, but Sanogo, Andre Jackson and and sophomore Jalen Gaffney helped UConn keep pace.
Jackson hit a pair of free throws with seven minutes left in the half to pull the Huskies within two points of Villanova, and give UConn its first made free throws of the game after an 0-for-4 start from the line. Martin, who scored six points in the first half, tied the game with a pair of free throws with 5:41 to go in the first.
Sanogo canned a hook shot over Robinson-Earl to give the Huskies their first lead of the game, 27-25, with just under five minutes left in the half. Gaffney, who came off the bench for UConn, scored 5 points in 50 seconds at the end of the half, and hit a 3-pointer with 2:20 to go to give UConn a 32-30 lead. The Huskies went scoreless after that though, as Gillespie and Robinson-Earl each scored to give the Wildcats a two-point lead at half.
UConn next plays Tuesday at Georgetown.