Connecticut 64, West Virginia 57
January 09, 2012 09:46 PM | General
Jeremy Lamb scored 25 points and freshman Andre Drummond added 20 points and 11 rebounds to lead Connecticut to a 64-57 victory over West Virginia Monday night at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.
“When you’ve got a player like Jeremy Lamb you ride him and they did,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “What happens is when you over-help on Lamb that opens things up for Drummond.”
The victory snapped Connecticut’s two-game losing streak and boosts its record to 12-4, 3-2.
“It’s frustrating because I really thought we could come in here and win tonight,” said Huggins. “We just break down.”
It was Lamb and Drummond who came to the rescue when Connecticut was trailing the Mountaineers by 10, 46-36, midway through the second half. Lamb scored 13 of his game-high 25 down the stretch while Drummond added 9 as UConn outscored West Virginia 28-11 over the remaining 11 minutes of the game.
“We’re up eight and we quit running offense,” said Huggins. “When they made the run we didn’t answer. We had curls open and we just wouldn’t pass the ball. This team just doesn’t pass the ball and this is going to continue to happen until they start passing the basketball.”
Kevin Jones led West Virginia with 22 points. The Mountaineers’ other big gun, Truck Bryant, had a tough night shooting, going 2 for 13, and finishing with just 8 points – 10 below his season average.
Deniz Kilicli added 12 points for the Mountaineers, now 12-5, 3-2.
“We had people open. It wasn’t like Deniz didn’t have post position,” said Huggins. “It wasn’t like KJ didn’t have post position but we didn’t give them the ball.”
West Virginia had a tough time finding the rim, going 32.3 percent overall and 25 percent from 3; the Mountaineers took 24 3-point tries for the game.
On the other end, Connecticut shot the ball extremely well, going 26 of 47 overall from the floor for 55.3 percent. The Huskies, which had committed at least 13 turnovers in all four of their Big East games coming into tonight’s game, made one less than that while handing out 18 assists.
UConn also came into tonight with more turnovers than assists as a team.
West Virginia is still winless at UConn, the Mountaineers now 0-9 overall including an 0-4 record at the XL Center.
“They are really, really talented and they’ve probably got two of the top 10 picks in the draft and some other guys that will play (in the NBA),” said Huggins.
This is the only regular season meeting between the two schools.
“Other than Syracuse, this league is pretty wide open,” said Huggins. “We had a chance to get some separation and didn’t do it. This was kind of do or die for them because if you get three losses you’re probably not going to catch Syracuse, particularly a home loss.”
The Mountaineers return to action this Saturday at the WVU Coliseum, facing Rutgers in a 2 p.m. game that will be televised on the Big East Network.
“When you’ve got a player like Jeremy Lamb you ride him and they did,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “What happens is when you over-help on Lamb that opens things up for Drummond.”
The victory snapped Connecticut’s two-game losing streak and boosts its record to 12-4, 3-2.
“It’s frustrating because I really thought we could come in here and win tonight,” said Huggins. “We just break down.”
It was Lamb and Drummond who came to the rescue when Connecticut was trailing the Mountaineers by 10, 46-36, midway through the second half. Lamb scored 13 of his game-high 25 down the stretch while Drummond added 9 as UConn outscored West Virginia 28-11 over the remaining 11 minutes of the game.
“We’re up eight and we quit running offense,” said Huggins. “When they made the run we didn’t answer. We had curls open and we just wouldn’t pass the ball. This team just doesn’t pass the ball and this is going to continue to happen until they start passing the basketball.”
Kevin Jones led West Virginia with 22 points. The Mountaineers’ other big gun, Truck Bryant, had a tough night shooting, going 2 for 13, and finishing with just 8 points – 10 below his season average.
Deniz Kilicli added 12 points for the Mountaineers, now 12-5, 3-2.
“We had people open. It wasn’t like Deniz didn’t have post position,” said Huggins. “It wasn’t like KJ didn’t have post position but we didn’t give them the ball.”
West Virginia had a tough time finding the rim, going 32.3 percent overall and 25 percent from 3; the Mountaineers took 24 3-point tries for the game.
On the other end, Connecticut shot the ball extremely well, going 26 of 47 overall from the floor for 55.3 percent. The Huskies, which had committed at least 13 turnovers in all four of their Big East games coming into tonight’s game, made one less than that while handing out 18 assists.
UConn also came into tonight with more turnovers than assists as a team.
West Virginia is still winless at UConn, the Mountaineers now 0-9 overall including an 0-4 record at the XL Center.
“They are really, really talented and they’ve probably got two of the top 10 picks in the draft and some other guys that will play (in the NBA),” said Huggins.
This is the only regular season meeting between the two schools.
“Other than Syracuse, this league is pretty wide open,” said Huggins. “We had a chance to get some separation and didn’t do it. This was kind of do or die for them because if you get three losses you’re probably not going to catch Syracuse, particularly a home loss.”
The Mountaineers return to action this Saturday at the WVU Coliseum, facing Rutgers in a 2 p.m. game that will be televised on the Big East Network.
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