Give UConn credit for their innovation. On Thursday night, the Huskies found yet another way to lose a close game, this time in a 58-57 defeat at the hands of Cincinnati. It was UConn’s fourth loss of the season by three points or less.
It was not without controversy. With 11 seconds remaining, Cincy’s Gary Clark made a tough shot in the lane to tie the game. Shonn Miller was called for a foul on the play (more on this in a moment). Down one on the ensuing possession, Sterling Gibbs labored into the paint for an off-balance runner that missed right. Miller grabbed the offensive rebound and, through contact, saw his shot attempt miss left and get swatted back out towards the perimeter. Jalen Adams got off a last-second heave from three that also missed. Game over.
In the postgame press conference, coach Kevin Ollie didn’t hesitate to paint a picture of those final 11 seconds. “It came down to one possession,” said Ollie. “The ref called a foul on one end and not on the other.”
The validity of that statement can be debated. It appeared there was contact on each play, and the officiating was typically… interesting… throughout the game, but the Huskies’ problems extended far beyond a questionable whistle and a questionable no-call.
The team committed four shot clock violations in the game, which Ollie credited to Cincy’s matchup zone that stifled the Huskies. In the second half, UConn committed nine turnovers, missed seven of their eight three-point attempts, shot 28.1 percent from the floor and did not score a point over the final 6:22 of the game.
Jalen Adams was the one Husky who played well throughout the game. He scored 11 points on 4-7 shooting mainly by getting inside the Cincy defense, though he did also make his first three-pointer since December 2nd. His teammates had an up-and-down evening.
Rodney Purvis again came off the bench, arriving on the court two and a half minutes into the game and scoring seven of UConn’s first 16 points. Late in the half, Gibbs got hot, burying three three-pointers in 59 seconds. The duo combined for 21 first half points, sending the Huskies to the locker room with a five point halftime lead.
Then they went 2-11 in the second half, combining for only five points.
Meanwhile, Daniel Hamilton had another poor shooting night. He was 2-11 from the floor and matched a season-low (set 14 days ago) with five points. He did record eight rebounds and eight assists, but had no answers on offense, especially in the second half when nothing was working for the Huskies. No one on the team scored more than five points after intermission.
The loss was UConn’s sixth of the season and arguably the toughest to stomach. They will look to get back on track on Sunday when they travel to Orlando to take on UCF. The game tips at 4pm will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
I doubt we will lose to UCF but who knows. This was such a heartbreaking loss, we were up four with a little over a minute left! But I’m glad that Ollie called the ref out in the press conference. There was clearly contact on the last play (Schonn Millers last layup attempt- if you can call it that) and they call nothing. The ref nearly ran away at the buzzer as Ollie tried to chase after him
I’ve lost almost all faith in this team and coaching. I don’t understand it. Last year that said we lacked talent. This year we have talent, but we lack chemistry. Next year they’ll tell us we lack senior leadership with all the freshmen. The excuses are getting old. This is no longer the blue chip program it once was. I guess there’s still hope for a miracle that we will run rest of games. Hamilton HAS to get out of the slump and Purvis more consistent, and coaching has to get better. Time almost out