UConn brought us some holiday cheer by beating Eastern Washington University 82-65 at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport. The Eagles kept the game close through the first half, but UConn ran away with the contest down the stretch. This was an especially heartening turn of events, as we have repeatedly seen this Husky team let leads slip away at the end of games.
The Huskies’ offense took some time to come together. UConn lead 18-16 with under eight to play in the first half. Only Ryan Boatright was on during the first half, scoring 8 of the Huskies first 20 points. But by the second half, the Huskies’ offense seemed to be running the way you would want a nationally ranked collegiate basketball team’s offense to run.
Instead of firing off desperation threes (and missing badly) as they did against Stanford, UConn’s guards drove to the hoop and got fouled, repeatedly. UConn made 25 of their 27 free throws, going an astonishing 92.6 percent from the charity stripe. There was a clear effort to drive into the lane and get fouled, obviously because this team can hit basically all of its free throws.
“We’re not settling for a lot of threes,” Coach Ollie said. “We do want to shoot threes, but the right type of threes.”
Phil Nolan wasn’t in the starting line up for the second game; Amida Brimah started at center. But Brimah picked up two fouls early, and only played five minutes in the game. Nolan looked like a competent rebounder. His last two performances suggest Nolan has worked his way back into the starting line up. Ollie said after the game that Nolan wasn’t benched; he just wasn’t starting.
“Phil was great,” Ollie said. “He responded the right way.”
Neils Giffey was another new face in the starting rotation, replacing the slumping Omar Calhoun. Giffey made the most of his minutes going 4-of-5 from the floor, including hitting his only three-point attempt, making all four of his free throws, blocking three shots, getting three steals and an assist, just for good measure. Giffey is 21-for-32 on three pointers this season. That’s an insane 65.6 percent. He doesn’t have enough attempts on the year (yet) to be officially listed, but that percentage is better than anyone else in the country. I credit the beard.
In other good news, Calhoun’s shots finally started to fall. After a couple early misses, he ended the night 5-for-9 from the floor, including hitting back-to-back three pointers in the second half. Calhoun and Nolan lead the team in rebounds with six apiece.
Shabazz Napier led the team with 15 points and nine assists. But the scoring was spread pretty evenly across the Husky line-up. Boat had 14, Giffey had 13, Calhoun had 12 and Nolan had a career-high 11. DeAndre Daniels chipped in another eight.
Notes:
- UConn scored 22 points off of EWU’s 15 turnovers. And, shockingly!, UConn managed to out-rebound EWU 39-36.
- EWU is now 1-19 against ranked opponents. Tyler Harvey led EWU with 19 points. As expected, EWU threw up a lot of three point shots, going 9-for-28 from behind the arc.
- This was the first game UConn played in Bridgeport. The Webster Arena was sold out, with 9,274 people in attendance. By all accounts there was little energy in the room (except when free T-shirts were being launched into the stands) and there was no student section. If UConn is going to play off campus, then they have to sell student tickets and get students to the game.
- Giffey confirmed after the game that there was some trash talking between him and compatriot Martin Seiferth. In German, ‘natch.
- Bazz was clearly not at 100 percent during the game. He missed the end of practice with a knee issue that did appear to be bothering him, but he played for 35 minutes.
- We had a Kenton Facey sighting. He only played for three minutes, but managed to grab two offensive boards while also not fouling anyone.
- Coach Kevin Freeman was not on the sidelines for today’s game, as his wife gave birth to a baby boy yesterday. Congrats to the Freeman family!
Next up:
UConn plays at Houston at 9 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. You can catch the game on ESPN2.
