One week ago, the No. 19 UConn Huskies held a 17 point lead at the Seton Hall Pirates. They went on to lose the game, choking away their cushion as things developed. Wednesday, against No. 13 Xavier in front of a loud and rowdy home crowd at Gampel Pavilion, the Huskies were down by as many as 17 points. Despite coming back and reducing the deficit to one a number of times, they could never get over the hump, ultimately losing 82-79.
“Really disappointing loss,” coach Dan Hurley said. “We came kind of unhinged with that offensive start. That had a real negative effect on our defense. We got rattled. Our guys aren’t used to starting off this well at home and it affected us. It’s a tough loss for us to absorb.”
This loss represents a mess of an eight game stretch for Connecticut that’s seen them lose six. Four of the six defeats have come against currently ranked competition, starting with their New Years’ contest at the Musketeers. It was their first loss at Gampel with fans in over two years. Things looked up for UConn after whacking Butler by a large margin on Sunday, but any progress was stopped short when they missed their first eight shots Wednesday night. They made a valiant comeback effort, but lulls in game-flow and various issues kept their momentum at bay.
“The fans here are amazing,” noted Xavier coach Sean Miller. “They’re nasty in a good way. For us to withstand the run of the Huskies and the crowd, it’s a testament to our team. This was our most complete win of the year.”
Tristen Newton was fantastic, doing everything possible in the middle 10 minutes of the game to prevent the matchup from getting ugly. He took 11 shots from the charity stripe and hit nine, helping him to 23 points, four boards and four dimes. There are a lot of people who the blame falls on with the loss, but it’s hard to pin too much of it on Newton, even with his five giveaways.
“I think Tristen has unlocked something today,” Hurley mentioned. “That’s great to see.”
Hawkins played very well even with the loss, scoring 26 of his 28 in the second half. He shot 8-16 from the field and 5-10 from deep. He was one of the few answers that the Huskies were able to muster up, but fouled out with just seconds to play. He would have been the leading candidate to take the final shot to tie it, but was stuck on the bench to watch. The wing has been playing at a high level even as the Huskies have been struggling, something to watch as the rest of the team tries to turn the corner.
“If you told me Tristen would have 23 and [Hawkins] would have 28 I thought we’d be in really really good shape in this one,” Hurley said.
An Adam Kunkel triple opened the game, helping fuel nine early unanswered points that held the Huskies scoreless for the first four minutes. Hurley called a timeout and Sanogo got his guys started with an answer towards a 7-2 run. The Musketeers extended their advantage further over the next few minutes, with Connecticut struggling to keep up.
The lead ballooned all the way to 17 at the under four timeout with the Huskies having many more questions than answers for Xavier’s attack. Tristen Newton notched a quick six points, but it hardly made a dent into the deficit, with the Musketeers heading into the break with a 15 point cushion.
Coming out of the locker room, Connecticut accumulated a lot of free throws along with a pair of Sanogo and Hawkins threes. Despite the influx of scoring, Xavier continued to shoot and score at will, keeping the lead in double digits. A Karaban long ball cut the advantage to nine and Newton got it to five, sending Gampel Pavilion into a frenzy. Hawkins found himself wide open on a broken play, reducing it to two.
Two and-ones and a Nunge hook contributed to a 10-0 run and all of a sudden the Musketeers were back in business. Hawkins hit again from beyond the arc and then drew the fifth foul on Freemantle. Newton hit a massive three and then Jackson got the ball on the fastbreak and slammed it home, making it a single point game again. The Musketeers got it back to four, but a three point play the old-fashioned way from Hawkins got it back to one.
Nunge got open for a wide open layup and Newton missed a floater, but the rebound ended up in a tie up, with the possession arrow pointing in the Huskies direction with nine seconds left. Connecticut had trouble getting up a shot, as Newton was fouled with two ticks remaining. He hit both from the line--the second by accident, trying to miss--and as did Xavier on the other end. Newton chucked up a heave from 40 feet, but came up empty, ultimately losing by three.
“This break comes at a good time for us to regroup, Hurley said. “We need to get the bench going.”
The Huskies will have a chance to do just that this Tuesday against DePaul on the road in a must win situation.
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