Huskies Hold Off Texas, 71-66

It took until the 12th game of the season, but UConn earned its first true signature win of the season on Tuesday night by defeating Texas, on the road, 71-66.

The Huskies caught a lucky break before the game when Texas announced that center Cameron Ridley would be out with injury. Lacking their own starting center, UConn was granted the freedom to play small with little consequence as Texas was forced to do likewise.

Kentan Facey earned his first start of the season and played well. He was a perfect 3-3 from the floor, scoring seven points and grabbing a team-high eight rebounds. Often paired with Shonn Miller, the duo was able to limit Texas’s effectiveness inside, forcing the Longhorns to take 23 three-pointers. Facey’s role will remain important as UConn begins conference play, but he’s proven up to the task thus far; it was his eighth game of the season with five or more rebounds.

UConn’s leading scorer was, again, Rodney Purvis, who continued his double-digit scoring streak (now at 18 games) by scoring 16 points, the bulk of which came down the stretch. The strong effort was important as Sterling Gibbs and Jalen Adams struggled for much of the game. The knock against Purvis is a familiar one. He missed all three of his free throw attempts, the last of which came on the front-end of a one-and-one where Texas purposely fouled Purvis as if he was 90s-era Shaq. That forced Ollie to attempt offense/defense substitutions late in the game trying to maximize Purvis’s defensive impact but hiding him on the bench so Texas couldn’t send him to the line. Amazingly, Purvis is now shooting better from the field (51.1 percent) than he is from the line (50 percent).

Back to Gibbs. He hit two big first half threes and it appeared that he was poised for a breakout in his former home arena. But he missed his other six shot attempts in the half, including three two-point attempts and failed to hit a second half field goal until a clutch late layup (that the official scorer credited to Purvis, for some reason).

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Now the good news: Gibbs hit four gigantic free throws down the stretch, sealing the win for the Huskies. Having a lights-out free throw shooter, especially at point guard, is such a luxury. It’s essentially the equivalent of having a dominant closer in baseball. If the Huskies can maintain a lead into the final 90 seconds of a game, they’ve got a huge advantage with Gibbs having the ball in his hands (quick shout to Daniel Hamilton, Omar Calhoun and Adams who have been very good from the line this season as well).

Texas has the makings of a good team. Their four losses are to relatively good teams. They’ll have plenty of opportunities to notch a few more big wins in conference play — they already own a big win over North Carolina. Isaiah Taylor is a star — he had 19 points on Tuesday. And they’ll only get better as their freshmen mature and Ridley comes back. They’re always a fun matchup for UConn. It’d be nice to see these games on the schedule every year.

For UConn, the win on Tuesday helps bolster both its resumé and confidence heading into conference play. The Huskies still have work to do to strengthen their chances of an at-large bid (if needed). They now boast wins over Michigan (neutral court) and Texas (road). Adding victories over SMU, Memphis, Cincinnati and Tulsa will be important in the coming months, but first the Huskies will spend New Year’s in New Orleans when they travel to face Tulane on Saturday evening. Tip is at 7:30 p.m. and the game can be “seen” on CBS Sports Network.