Huskies Fall to Memphis As Boatright Says Goodbye to Gampel

@MattSchonvisky

The night started the way it was supposed to end, all about the seniors, all about Huskies guard Ryan Boatright, taking the Gampel Pavilion court for the final time in his UConn career. For thirty-nine minutes, fifty-two seconds, it was going according to plan until Shaq Goodwin put Memphis ahead 54-53, with 8.1 seconds to play.

Head coach Kevin Ollie called timeout, setting the stage for Boat to hit the first game winner at the buzzer in his college career. He caught the ball at three-quarter court, drove left, was bumped in traffic and threw up a one-handed runner off the left elbow that was not close. Whether he was fouled or not, this one should not have come down to the last possession.

“Shooting 27-percent, it’s going to be hard for us to win,” Ollie said following the loss. “Give credit to Memphis, they came in, they took the game and played with a sense of urgency right from the tap. I think the guys just forgot what we did against SMU, where we shared the basketball and played together. I just thought it was too much selfishness out there on the offensive and defensive ends.”

The Huskies were behind from the jump, spotting Memphis a 16-4 lead, eight minutes into the game.

“I have no idea, I just didn’t know what the mindset was when they came out tonight,” Ollie said, bewildered at his teams’ performance out of the gate.

Fresh off a 28-point outing on Sunday against SMU, Rodney Purvis went 0-for-7, scoring just 3 points, all from the free throw line.

“I can’t explain it,” Ollie said. “He struggled, didn’t make a shot all night. He got to the free throw line, made a couple free throws, but once again, you can’t let your shot dictate your energy on the basketball court. That’s not just Rodney, that’s everybody. If your shot is not falling, you need to make an impact on the game and that’s getting offensive rebounds and playing good defense. Our guys just didn’t do that totally as a group.”

The first half was physical, including a flagrant foul that saw Purvis get launched into the stanchion in mid-air, on his way in for a dunk on a run out. Cooler heads prevailed, but it was the second skirmish in as many games between these two teams in 2015.

“It’s going to be like that, it’s a tough league, it’s Division I basketball, it’s going to be physical play,” Boatright said after the loss. “You need to keep your head and stay poised, which we did. We fought back, stayed together and did the things we needed to do to get back in the game, but we just didn’t execute well enough in the second half.”

The numbers were not pretty. Five-for-twenty-one from three. Fifteen-for-fifty-four from the field. Daniel Hamilton led the Huskies with 16 points, but it was on 5-for-16 shooting, 2-for-9 from behind the arc. He passed up a number of open looks and forced himself into some tougher shots than needed.

“I took some bad shots and the open shots I was passing up,” Hamilton said after the game.

Boatright concurred.

“I told him I didn’t think he was being aggressive enough,” he said. “They were disrespecting him, weren’t even guarding him. I think he had 25 [points] the last time we played them, I told him I’d take that as disrespect. They were playing a triangle and two if I’m not mistaken, they weren’t even playing Daniel. I can’t be mad at him for not shooting, but you need to be more aggressive. We need him to score the basketball when he has open shots.”

Prior to the game, Boatright was honored during senior night festivities, along with Pat Lenehan and Dan Guest.

“It was a wonderful experience,” he said. “I thank everyone for coming out to support all my four years. Tonight was a great experience for me, but words really can’t explain how I felt.”

Boat finished with 14 points, but it wasn’t the way he wanted to end his final appearance at Gampel.

“I just didn’t take a good shot,” he said. “I’m not going to make any excuses, I could have got a better shot off than that. I just didn’t make the right decision.”

The Huskies are back in action on Saturday, as they travel to Philadelphia to face Temple at 2PM, in their regular season finale.

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