The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Another unimpressive win
UConn still 7-3 as it enters 12-day break
STORRS — Coppin State, winless in its first nine games this season, arrived at Gampel Pavilion less than an hour before tip-off on Saturday afternoon.
The Eagles’ bus ride from their hotel in Manchester, normally about a 20-minute ride, took about 45 minutes. So they had about 50 minutes to get dressed and warmed up for their bout with UConn.
And they were without their leading scorer.
And, did we mention, they were winless in their first nine games?
Yet Coppin State, which entered the game 349th in the nation (out of 351 teams) in 3-point shooting, rolled off the bus (literally) hitting 3s. Keandre Fair scored the game’s first points on a 3-pointer, and the Eagles got off to an 8-0 start.
Coppin State wound up hitting 7 of 14 3-pointers in the opening half — five of them by Lamar Morgan.
Ultimately, the Huskies had enough to methodically churn out a 72-59 victory. But it was as empty as Gampel on this snowy day (though to be fair, the crowd of 3,046 storm-braving fans wasn’t too shabby all things considered — even if students were allowed in for free).
Coppin State was still within single digits with as little as 3:05 to play. The Eagles wound up knocking down 10 3-pointers, seven of them by Morgan, who entered the game averaging 5.2 points per contest but poured in a career-best 30 on Saturday.
“I called it in the first half,” said Coppin State coach Juan Dixon. “He made two early and he passed the ball on one. I said, ‘Lamar, you can hit seven 3’s this game.’”
“There were a couple of instances where we left him to go to a shooter that wasn’t making shots and wasn’t hot like Morgan was,” UConn coach Kevin Ollie noted. “His last 3, we went right under the
screen.”
He became the latest in a long line of opponents who have scored career-highs against UConn: Michigan State’s Cassius Winston (28), Columbia’s Lukas Meisner (25), Monmouth’s Micah Seaborn (27), Syracuse’s Matthew Moyer (18) and now Morgan.
“We can’t allow guys to get career-highs against us,” Ollie bemoaned. “A guy coming in averaging five points and getting 30, that’s something we have to take pride in (stopping) and cut that down.”
UConn turned the ball over 15 times and shot a mere 37 percent from the floor. The Huskies outrebounded Coppin State 5026, but otherwise, there was precious little to highlight.
“Our defense just has to be better,” said sophomore guard Christian Vital. “There’s no sugar-coating it. We need to keep the ball out of the middle. Guards, myself, I need to keep the ball from getting into the paint and allowing their guards to create.”
And yet, as the Huskies embark on a 12-day exam break before resuming action on Dec. 21 at Arizona, the team is 7-3. Not a great record, and certainly not without some close calls against weaker opponents (like Coppin State).
But 7-3, nonetheless. “We’re young and we’re still learning, but we’re not gonna feel sorry for being 7-3,” Vital said. “When you look at our schedule, we’re 7-3. But we do know that the competition of games we’re about to play — especially going into conference play, and having Arizona and Auburn at their places — those are gonna be tough games. But I don’t see why we won’t be able to win those games. We’re a tough team, too. Once we figure this out over this break and find out and tweak a few things, find out how to play better together, I believe we’re gonna win those games.”
Added Adams: “We don’t feel bad about ourselves. We just know we can’t play down to our competition. We know what we’re getting ourselves into. When we’re getting ready to go to Arizona, we’ve got to step it up a notch.”
Intent on getting off to better starts, and playing an opponent that barely had a chance to warm up prior to the game, UConn immediately fell behing 8-0. The Huskies turned the ball over four times in the first two minutes of play.
“We missed shots and we weren’t playing defense the way we want to play,” said Ollie. “We had a great jumpball play, didn’t execute the play. Had a turnover, then they shot a 3. You have to do a better job going over our scouting reports and taking care of the basketball.”
UConn led by just five at halftime. The Huskies would increase that to 11 a few times in the latter half, but Coppin State never went away. Keyed almost entirely by Morgan, the Eagles were within seven with just over four minutes left. UConn closed the game out on a 6-0 run.
“The one thing we did, and we emphasized it in practice, was rebounding,” said Ollie. “I thought they did a great job rebounding.”
Asked what was No. 1 among his many concerns with the team, the coach was quick to respond.
“One-on-one defense, that’s what concerns me. And turning the basketball over. That’s a recipe for disaster. We have to keep people in front of us, and we’ve got to take care of the basketball.”
The Huskies have a dozen days to improve in that department before the competition starts getting a whole lot better down in Tucson, Arizona.