Published: January 14, 2007
NEW YORK (AP)
The 24th-ranked UConn Huskies topped St. John's 68-59 on
Saturday night at Madison Square Garden to snap a two-game losing
streak and give a nine-man rotation of sophomores and freshmen some
confidence.
"It was a good win because we needed to get a win, obviously,"
Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. "It was the first one on the
road for a very young team."
The Huskies (13-3, 2-2 Big East) had lost at LSU last Saturday
to drop to 0-2 on the road and then were beaten at home by
Marquette on Wednesday night. They shot 31 percent from the field
in each of the losses, were outrebounded and committed an average
of 17 turnovers.
The shooting was a lot better (50 percent) against St. John's,
but they were outrebounded 39-36 and had 19 turnovers.
Freshmen Stanley Robinson, A.J. Price and Hasheem Thabeet
combined for 40 points and the Huskies showed off an effective 2-3
zone that forced St. John's (10-7, 1-3) to shoot 33 percent from
the field.
Calhoun left the game with 11:40 to play because of an upset
stomach. He returned with 55 seconds to play. Some thought his
sudden gastrointestinal problems could have been because his team
was playing zone, something rare for a Calhoun-coached team.
"No, it wasn't the zone," Calhoun said laughing. "For two days
we worked only on the zone. The zone was a major part of getting us
the lead. When you played Connecticut over the past six years, if
you saw five possessions of zone that was a lot."
Price scored 15 points, Robinson added 13 points and 12 rebounds
and Thabeet had 12 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks. It all
helped Connecticut avoid losing three straight games for the first
time since dropping five in a row in January 2001.
Aaron Spears had 11 points for the Red Storm, who lost their
third straight and fourth in five games.
"We got the ball in the right positions, we just didn't make
shots," St. John's coach Norm Roberts said. "We went to the basket
hard, some shots just didn't fall and it allowed them to get a
lead."
The Huskies, who had not lost two straight games in almost three
years, scored the game's first 12 points and appeared headed to an
easy win. But they committed 12 turnovers and weren't able to
sustain the hot early shooting. St. John's was within 31-23 at
halftime despite shooting 32.3 percent (10-for-31).
About 3 minutes after Calhoun left the bench, the Huskies took
their biggest lead, 52-35 on a dunk by Marcus Johnson. Spears had a
three-point play that got the Red Storm within 52-42 with 7:30 to
go, but Thabeet scored down low and Robinson hit a 15-foot jumper
and a 3-pointer and the lead was 17 again with 4:39 left.
St. John's was able to get within seven points three times, but
the Huskies went 5-for-6 from the free throw line over the final 55
seconds to keep the Red Storm at bay.
Connecticut finished at 50 percent for the game (22-for-44) and
committed 19 turnovers.
Lamont Hamilton, St. John's leading scorer at 13.8 per game, had
nine points, all in the final 8:16 as he was limited to 19 minutes
because of foul trouble.
St. John's shot 33 percent for the game (23-for-69) and had 11
shots blocked.
"We didn't execute as well as we needed to," Roberts said. "I
thought we played hard. We competed. We did a great job on the
glass. We just have to put the ball in the basket."