Huskies Drop Conference Opener, Fall to 6-5 on the Season
For the third time in three seasons under head coach Kevin Ollie, UConn lost their conference opener this afternoon, 57-53 to Temple in overtime, at the XL Center in Hartford.
Freshman forward Daniel Hamilton walked to the free throw line with 2.8 seconds remaining in the extra five minutes, after getting fouled attempting a go-ahead three, down 55-53. The first two shots clanked off the back rim before Hamilton committed a lane violation on the final shot, attempting to hit the front rim and get an offensive rebound, but he crossed the line before the ball reached the hoop, which did not hit the rim regardless.
It was the story of the afternoon for UConn, who went 8-19 from the charity stripe, the third loss this season that can rest solely on free throws. Senior guard Ryan Boatright missed crucial free throws down the stretch against both Yale and Texas, where the games were decided by last-second threes from opponents at Gampel to give the Huskies two, one-point defeats.
In a season where out-of-conference losses have added up and a conference slate that is much-less challenging than the former Big East days, today’s loss is another set back in the hopes of becoming an at-large selection in the NCAA tournament.
Add to that Boatright’s absence from the second-half and his status being unknown for Saturday at Florida with a deep thigh contusion and where this season is going is very much in doubt.
“It was just a deep thigh contusion and he just couldn’t do it,” Ollie said following the loss. “The thing I know is he is really, really hurt, I’ve never seen him bow out of anything, just for the sake of our team, he just couldn’t go. We had some other guys try to step up and fill in the void he left, which obviously you cannot do, but I though the guys really played with some effort.”
“The game came down to execution,” Ollie continued. “I thought our guys played with heart, Temple did a good job getting to the free throw line and converting, we just didn’t do a good job with our offense down the stretch, 1-9 from the three point line and 8-19 from the free throw line. Daneil missed the three, I know he feels bad about that, but there were other things in this game that caused us to lose it and we’ll just back to work tomorrow.”
Down six in the closing moments, the Huskies came all the way back to force overtime following a Rodney Purvis run out and dunk to tie the game at 51. The Huskies only managed two points on 1-5 shooting and 0-4 from the free throw line in overtime.
We will have much more reaction from today’s loss including KO’s full post-game press conference and interviews with Amida Brimha, Rodney Purvis and Kenton Facey.
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