Nothing comes easy for this UConn team.
For about 35 minutes on Saturday, the Huskies were in a battle with Tulane, and it looked like it was going to end in another inexcusable road loss. Louis Dabney connected on a three-point play with 6:49 left to put the Green Wave up five and there was no reason to believe the Huskies were ready to get going offensively.
Then the Ferrari heated up.
Rodney Purvis scored 11 of his 17 points in the final 6:30, including a critical three to follow Dabney’s bucket-and-one to steal momentum back. Coming out of the under-four media timeout, he made a layup and hit another three to extend a two-point lead to seven and UConn never looked back.
The final was 62-53, and for the first time this season, the Huskies moved to two games above .500 in the American Athletic Conference (6-4).
Purvis’s 7-12 night from the field was a great sign off the bench and it was the first time since Jan. 17 that a player other than Ryan Boatright led UConn in scoring.
Boatright finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
But the impressive final minutes from Purvis shouldn’t overshadow the persistent problem with UConn: there is still no consistent second option to Boatright. Purvis was excellent down the stretch, and that’s why UConn won. Yet there’s been no indication that he can do that consistently. Or that Daniel Hamilton (11 points, eight rebounds) could fill that void. If UConn is going to actually win its final 10 games, as Boatright predicted following the East Carolina game, then it will need to sort that out. It was a good start from Purvis, but can he keep it up?
Inside, UConn was outrebounded 36-29, and gave up 14 offensive boards. Given how intimidated the Green Wave looked going up against the UConn bigs, this is especially discouraging. Kentan Facey had his second straight subpar game, playing just 13 minutes, scoring one point and not grabbing a rebound. Phil Nolan wasn’t much better; he fouled out in 21 minutes.
Amida Brimah did provide a bright spot down low. Though he attempted only one shot, he blocked eight and altered a few more. Still, the 7-footer had only one rebound.
In short: plenty of good, plenty of bad, and just as many questions after the game as we had before it.
UP NEXT: The Huskies return to the XL Center to face first-place Tulsa on Thursday. The Golden Hurricane topped UConn 66-58 in Oklahoma on Jan. 13 and are a perfect 10-0 in the conference. Last I checked, there were about a million tickets still remaining, so if you haven’t bought yours yet, please do so.
