STORRS, CT – The Northeastern men's basketball team was defeated by the Big East's Connecticut 80-44 on Saturday night at Gampel Pavilion.
Former Northeastern head coach Jim Calhoun (1972-86) showed no mercy to his former team as his Huskies of Connecticut handed NU its largest loss of the season. Calhoun is now 4-0 lifetime against the team he once led to five NCAA Tournament appearances. Leading the way for UConn was Caron Butler with 19 points. Ricky Cranford led the Huskies with 10 points, all in the first half.
"UConn's size and athleticism came up big," said first-year NU coach Ron Everhart. "When you look up in the arena, you see you have a national championship banner there, and there's a reason for that." Northeastern had troubles scoring all evening long as several scoreless droughts and poor field goal shooting, 29.7 percent for the game and 22.9 percent in the second half (8-35), were too much for NU to overcome.
Senior Jean Bain put up five points in the first 1:53 of the second half for Northeastern, but NU would then be held scoreless for the next 4:18 as UConn reeled off seven straight points to stretch its bulge to 24 points.
Connecticut took its largest lead of the first half, 40-23, into the lockerroom at the end of the first frame of action. Calhoun's Huskies made Northeastern pay for its mistakes as Ron Everhart's Huskies surrendered 20 points off turnovers in the first half alone.
"We didn't take care of the basketball very well, that was the difference in the first half," Everhart said. "We also missed some easy shots. We had some shots blocked early on and got intimidated."
NU's Cranford and UConn's Butler each led their respective teams in scoring at the half with 10 apiece. Northeastern shot 37.9 percent (11-29) in the first frame, compared to Connecticut's 42.9 percent (15-35). To start the game, Connecticut jumped out to an early 7-0 advantage and led 13-2 at 15:31 of the first half. Northeastern had many good opportunites, but struggled scoring in the paint as UConn's Emeka Okafor had six of his team's seven first half blocks. Okafor finished with eight blocks and UConn had 13 as a team, their most since a game in the 1991-92 season.
"I did think we have some positives tonight," Everhart said. "The fact that we held them under 50 percent (from the floor) is an accomplishment in itself. We're starting to show the effort I'm looking for."
With the victory Connecticut improves to 4-1 on the season as Northeastern drops to 1-7. UConn now leads the all-time series 31-4 over NU. Next up for the Huntington Huskies is former America East foe Drexel in Philadelphia on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m.
VISITORS: NORTHEASTERN 1-7
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
01 Hancock, Jermaine 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 1 3 0 0 9
03 Nlandu, Lunzaya 0-1 0-0 0-2 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 1 10
04 West, Tim 1-3 0-0 0-0 3 1 4 0 2 0 3 0 1 9
05 Bain, Jean 3-6 1-2 0-0 1 0 1 2 7 0 0 0 1 21
12 Davis, Aaron 1-6 1-4 0-0 1 1 2 0 3 0 2 0 0 18
14 Brittian, Toby 2-6 0-1 0-0 0 4 4 2 4 1 2 4 0 16
20 Walker, Jamaar 1-4 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 1 2 8 4 0 0 27
22 Cranford, Ricky 5-11 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 1 10 0 2 0 0 28
23 Johnson, Antonio 3-8 1-3 1-3 1 2 3 1 8 0 1 0 1 9
30 Wright, Cornellius 1-5 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 1 2 0 3 2 1 18
31 Randall, Q 2-8 0-0 0-0 2 3 5 3 4 0 1 1 1 23
32 Dunn, Jesse 0-2 0-0 2-4 1 1 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 3
34 Ilnicki, Dave 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
40 Eversley, Eric 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
42 Burke-Bennett,Meshak 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 7
TEAM ........................................ 3 2 5
TOTALS 19-64 3-14 3-9 14 21 35 21 44 10 21 7 6 200
TOT-FG 1stH: 11-29 37.9% 2ndH: 8-35 22.9% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 29.7% Deadbl
3pt-FG 1stH: 1-5 20.0% 2ndH: 2-9 22.2% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 21.4% Rebs
FThrow 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 3-9 33.3% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 33.3% 4
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HOME TEAM: CONNECTICUT 4-1
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
03 Butler, Caron f 8-15 0-2 3-3 3 4 7 1 19 6 4 0 3 29
44 Selvie, Johnnie f 5-9 0-0 5-8 5 6 11 3 15 1 3 1 2 23
50 Okafor, Emeka c 2-6 0-0 1-3 2 4 6 1 5 2 0 8 0 23
12 Brown, Taliek g 1-4 1-1 2-2 0 2 2 3 5 2 4 0 1 22
32 Robertson, Tony g 4-8 4-6 2-2 0 3 3 2 14 3 3 0 1 28
02 Swain, Robert 1-3 0-1 0-1 1 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 3
04 Gordon, Ben 5-6 1-1 0-0 1 3 4 2 11 3 2 0 0 24
05 Wise, Chad 0-3 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 8
10 Gyambibi, Kwasi 0-1 0-1 1-2 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 2
20 Brown, Justin 0-0 0-0 2-2 1 2 3 1 2 0 1 2 0 7
21 Hazelton, Scott 1-5 0-1 2-2 1 2 3 0 4 0 0 0 0 13
25 Hayes, Mike 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 11
30 Tooles, Shamon 0-0 0-0 2-2 0 2 2 0 2 0 0 1 1 5
31 Watanasuparp, Ace 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
35 Woodward, Mike 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
TEAM ........................................ 2 4 6
TOTALS 27-61 6-14 20-27 17 34 51 16 80 17 18 13 8 200
TOT-FG 1stH: 15-35 42.9% 2ndH: 12-26 46.2% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 44.3% Deadbl
3pt-FG 1stH: 2-4 50.0% 2ndH: 4-10 40.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 42.9% Rebs
FThrow 1stH: 8-11 72.7% 2ndH: 12-16 75.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 74.1% 3
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OFFICIALS: Joe Lindsay, Earl Walton, Gary Prager
TECHNICAL FOULS:
NORTHEASTERN - none
CONNECTICUT - none
ATTENDANCE: 10027
