Shorthanded Huskies connect for win over ECU

HARTFORD >> Kentan Facey picked up a UConn team poster just before talking to reporters on Sunday night and could only shake his head and smile.

He pointed to numerous players pictured who are currently out injured, either for the season or for the immediate future, and it was suggested that the poster needed to be updated.

“It’s just tough, man,” Facey said. “But we continue to fight with the guys we do have.”

The Huskies showed some fight on Sunday night. Equipped with essentially just six scholarship players and dangerously close to having to use walk-ons (Mike Noyes nearly checked into the game in the final minute of the first half but didn’t get to the scorer’s table on time), UConn rather easily handled East Carolina, 72-65, before a mere 5,676 at the XL Center.

Four players scored in double figures, led by Jalen Adams’s 19, and Facey notched his fourth double-double of the season (13 points, 10 boards) as the Huskies snapped a two-game losing skid and improved to 8-10 overall, 3-4 AAC.

“We had six guys, but those six guys played significant minutes,” said coach Kevin Ollie. “They did a beautiful job staying connected, playing with pride, respecting the jersey.”

Meanwhile, the men in blazers sitting on UConn’s bench could have formed a pretty potent starting five of their own: Alterique Gilbert at the point, Terry Larrier at shooting guard, Juwan Durham at small forward, Mamadou Diarra at power forward and Steve Enoch in the middle. Or something like that. Instead, they could only watch, bedecked in those blazers, either jeans or khakis and, in the case of Enoch and Durham, walking boots on their feet.

The Huskies’ walking wounded situation has just gotten plain ridiculous. You probably already know Gilbert, Larrier and Diarra are sidelined for the season. You may know that Enoch is suffering from what’s being called a “stress reaction” and has missed UConn’s last two games. Now, add Durham to the list,

after the 6-foot-11 freshman sprained his foot late in the loss to SMU Thursday night.

“It’s just tender and sore,” Ollie reported. “We just want to get him some rest. Hopefully a day off (Monday) can get everybody back and healthy, so we can have everybody for USF (on Wednesday night).”

UConn was certainly fortunate to be playing one of the weaker sisters of the AAC. ECU (9-11, 1-6 AAC) was without both its leading scorer (B.J. Tyson) and head coach (Jeff Lebo). UConn used a 16-0 run starting midway through the first, a stretch during which it held the Pirates scoreless for nearly eight minutes, to open up a 20-point lead.

“We finally went on a 16-0 run, instead of another team going on a 16-0 run,” Ollie noted.

ECU immediately countered with a 13-0 run of its own, and the Pirates more or less hung around most of the rest of the way. ECU was within seven midway through the second half, but UConn countered with a 9-0 run. The Pirates would inch back to within eight after a Jeremy Sheppard 3-pointer inside the final minute, but an Amida Brimah transition dunk pretty much slammed the door on any comeback bid.

The irony of UConn’s rash of injuries is that, for so many years, the program was remarkably immune to catastrophic, season-ending setbacks. A.J. Price missed his entire freshman season with a life-threatening battle with AVM, which caused bleeding on his brain. Jerome Dyson missed the last several games of the 2008-09 season, potentially costing the Huskies at a shot at a national championship.