The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Huskies let one get away vs. Arizona
HARTFORD — As he walked back to the locker room through the bowels of the XL Center, the sting of opportunity lost still raw, Dan Hurley simply could no longer contain himself.
The UConn head coach let out a good, old-fashioned expletive that echoed throughout the old building’s hallways.
“No more composure,” he then uttered, a reference, it would seem, to the relatively placid postgame press conference he had just given.
This one was frustrating for Hurley. As if a microcosm of his program’s current state — making its way back, but not there yet — UConn battled hard but just couldn’t quite get over the hump on Sunday. Arizona took a lead a little over midway through the first half and never relinquished it, holding on for a 76-72 victory before a nearsellout crowd.
“We should have won this game,” Hurley said, during his relatively “composed” presser. “Credit Arizona. Sean’s a heck of a coach, runs a heck of a program. But we were supposed to win this game.”
All the trappings were there. The crowd of 14,603 was just shy of a sellout, but roared as loud as the old Big East days at times, particularly during one spellbinding stretch midway through the first half when UConn hit seven of eight shots, “Big Red” made and appearance and the Huskies took a 24-22 lead.
“The crowd did a great job of keeping us in the game,” said forward Sidney Wilson. “It was like the sixth person on the court.
UConn (6-2) led 27-26 after a Jalen Adams layup off a lob from Alterique Gilbert. But Arizona’s Justin Coleman countered with a steal and layup.
And the Wildcats never trailed again.
“I know a lot of the guys, and myself, are just disappointed,” said Adams, who finished with a game-high 21 points,
along with six assists and five turnovers. “Especially with the guys who are returning. We wanted these games back so bad. We already lost to Arizona last year, so this was kind of our year to get it back. Everybody’s not too happy, because we know we didn’t play our best basketball. We know we’re capable of more, and we didn’t show that today.”
The Huskies turned the ball over 19 times, nearly a third of them on charging fouls against a Wildcat team with a knack for taking a charge. UConn shot just 8-for-24 on 3pointers and 8-for-13 from the line. Arizona (6-2) was even worse from distance (3-for-17) but hit 19 of 22 free throws, including 12 of its final 13.
UConn also seemed to have trouble handling a Wildcats team that isn’t physically imposing, but boasts more length and athleticism than the Huskies. And depth: By late in the first half, nine different Arizona players had made at least one basket, and a pair of players off the bench (Dylan Smith and Ryan Luther) both finished with 10 points.
“This is a mistake game. You’ve got to eliminate the mistakes,” said Hurley. “For us to allow Dylan Smith and Luther to score 20 points against us, on the road ... you can’t take their key guys out and allow their secondary players to beat you, especially at home. That’s not good.”
The Wildcats led 42-38 at halftime, and though the Huskies had several chances to jump back in front early in the latter half, they were never able to: Eric Cobb got blocked on a dunk attempt, Tyler Polley missed a couple of ill-advised 3-pointers. All of a sudden, a one-point deficit had turned to eight (62-54) with just under eight minutes to play.
UConn had one last charge, keyed by a couple of big hoops by Gilbert and a pair of huge, redemptive 3-pointers by Tyler Polley.
With 14.3 seconds left and UConn down three, Adams went to the foul line for two shots but missed his first. He hit his second, but the Wildcats hit four straight free throws over the final 13.7 seconds to seal the deal.
“Hard-fought game, disappointing loss,” Hurley said.
“Angry, disappointed,” Wilson. “This is one of those losses where you don’t really get that much sleep after. This really hurt, but we’re gonna have to regroup.”
“I feel like we disappointed,” added Cobb, who finished with a double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds). “We know why we came up short. It was basically on the defensive end. Everyone knows that wins games, and that’s what we’ve got to focus on.”
No question, “disappointed” was the key word when it was all said and done. Not to mention a high-volume expletive from a head coach who saw his team have an opportunity to swipe a game over a traditional national powerhouse in front of a big, loud crowd, and just couldn’t quite get over the hump.
“We can play them in Arizona, we can play them just about anywhere,” Hurley mused. “I think that we’re very similar teams ... We just didn’t play well enough, overall, to beat a good team.”