The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Houston, A Problem
Cougars use big run in second half, top Huskies
HARTFORD — Sidney Wilson knocked down a 3-pointer with 3 minutes, 23 seconds left to play on Thursday night, UConn’s 17-point deficit from about 3 1⁄2 minutes earlier was down to seven, and the XL Center crowd was loud.
Houston had trouble getting a shot off on its ensuing possession, ultimately settling for a wild attempt by Armoni Brooks with about three seconds left on the shot clock that hit the side of the backboard. UConn’s Tarin Smith ran down the long rebound with a second still showing on the shot clock, and the Huskies had a chance for a fast break.
Alas, one of the officials, Gerry Pollard, blew his whistle for a shot-clock violation, snuffing UConn’s opportunity to cut its deficit to five — or four.
Head coach Dan Hurley went apoplectic, flipping off his glasses, untucking his shirt and racing down the sidelines while saying “I don’t believe it!” — with perhaps an expletive thrown in, as well.
But the call stood. Christian Vital hit one of two free throws to get UConn to within six with 2:28 to play, but Houston’s DeJon Jarreau and Cedrick Alley, Jr. sandwiched a drive and a pair of free throws, respectively, around a pair of missed Josh Carlton freebies, and the Cougars held on for a 71-63 victory.
Hurley bit his tongue on the officiating afterwards, in fact praising the crew of Pollard, Terry Ogelsby and Keith Kimble.
“I never look to see who’s reffing, I wait til I walk out there,” he said. “I like to be surprised. When I saw those three guys, I felt really good.”
Not as much with just under
three minutes to play, however.
“Obviously, things happen,” Hurley added. “There’s a chance there, if that’s not called, to cut it to five or four, potentially. Who knows what happens at that point? But, we were able to get the ball and we didn’t execute. Obviously, that was a missed call, and he felt bad about it. Standup guy and a great crew.” An inadvertant whistle? “Just a blown call,” Hurley said.
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson didn’t hear an explanation from Pollard, either, but seemed to sympathize with the Huskies.
“That’s a terrible rule, though,” Sampson said. “Even if it was zero on the clock and the horn went off, they should just continue play. Because that’s a penalty to the offensive team. I don’t know why they stopped it, especially when there was time on the clock.”
Still, Hurley insisted that the call isn’t the reason UConn fell to 13-12 overall, 4-8 in the American Conference. Houston’s 17-4 start to the second half, coupled with the Huskies’ 14-for-25 foul shooting for the game, were the greater culprits.
“There was still a path to victory, even if it was quite narrow,” Hurley said. “But we just weren’t able to capitalize. Bad second-half start and our free-throw line performance cost us a chance to get a win that this group desperately wanted, needed. It would have been great for the program.”
“We made too many mistakes,” he added, “to beat a team that has a chance to play in the Final Four.”
The ninth-ranked Cougars (24-1, 11-1 AAC) aren’t Phi Slamma Jamma, though they did a reasonable imitation thereof on Thursday. Houston rammed home no fewer than eight slam dunks, and scored numerous other baskets on a variety of inside hoops, reverse layups and jump hooks.
And when Houston wasn’t scoring from close range (30 points in the paint), it was knocking down 3-pointers — 11 in all, on 21 attempts.
One place the Cougars didn’t do too much damage at was the foul line. Houston had attempted just two free throws until the final two minutes of the game, when it knocked down eight of its final nine.
Houston led by three (32-29) at the half, thanks to a Jarreau corner 3-pointer with 18 seconds left in the first half. But after a Jarreau layup with 7:09 to play, the Cougars’ lead was 58-41.
The Huskies made a game of it, with a 9-0 run during one two-minute stretch — punctuated by that odd shot-clock violation on Houston that hurt UConn. Once again, though they came up short, the Huskies never quit.
“We don’t do that anymore here,” Hurley said. “We don’t do that anymore here. We show up and we play like UConn men. We might not be everything that we need to be, in terms of being whole and having everything we need to be what UConn fans are used to seeing on the court. But we’re not cowards, we’re not soft. We’re tough. We’re developing a culture here of not giving in and playing through.”
Jarreau led all scorers with 18 points.
“He’s still not there yet,” Sampson insisted. “I’ve seen him in practice everyday do some things that he hasn’t quite let himself do in games.”
Vital led the Huskies with 15 ponts, Wilson added 12 and Smith 10.
RIM RATTLINGS
⏩ Prior to the game, the UConn pep band played Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4” in honor of Alex Schachter, who was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High shooting in Florida a year ago Thursday. Schachter’s dream was to attend UConn, and “24 or 6 to 4” was his favorite song.