Huskies Tested, But Get First Win of Year
The 2014 NCAA championship team members received their rings tonight at Gampel Pavilion and then kicked off the defense of that title, with a 66-53 victory over Bryant.
Sophomore Amida Brimah got the Huskies on the board first, which sparked the Huskies to a 19-8 lead out of the gate. However, the three-point shooting of Bryant (5-12 in the first half) kept them in the game and even saw the Bulldogs take a 34-28 lead to the break, ending the half on a 26-9 run over the final 11:14.
UConn shot just 18-percent (2-11) from three in that first half, including 0-5 from Sam Cassell Jr., who made his collegiate debut, starting in place of the suspended Rodney Purvis. Cassell did get his first bucket, however, on a nifty drive just over 4 minutes into the game.
The Huskies were also out-rebounded (22-20) in that first half, a testament that the aggressiveness was not there throughout the initial 20 minutes.
The second half was a different story, that saw the Huskies outscore Bryant 38-19, holding the Bulldogs to just 22-percent (2-9) from three and 27-percent overall.
“We had a great second half,” head coach Kevin Ollie said after the game. “We stayed connected, stayed together through a bad shooting first half and our defense came through. I thought out defense really took over the game in the second half starting with T Sam [Terrence Samuel] on [Dyami] Starks, making him uncomfortable.”
Samuel, who played 15 minutes off the bench in the first half, started the second half and played all but one minute. His defense was the reason why.
“We just stopped guys in that second half,” Samuel said. “Starks was the guy, I feel like I did a good job, as well as the team helping me out. We just played great team defense.”
Player of the night honors has to go to senior guard, Ryan Boatright, who shined as the leader of this Huskies squad. Boatright filled the stat sheet with 24 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and 1 block. His aggressiveness on the defensive end, led to a couple of thefts, that turned into dunks on the other end.
“In the second half, I just tried to get us going on the defensive end,” Boatright said following the win. “Try to turn the guy coming up the floor and that’s when I got a few picks. Once I got a few picks and a few dunks, everyone’s intensity picked up and that’s when the game went our way.”
Prior to the game, Boatright’s mom unexpectedly surprised her son and was in attendance to see him receive his championship ring. Boat immediately went over and gave it her.
“She surprised me, I didn’t even know she was coming,” Boatright said. “I’m in the warm-up line and I hear somebody screaming my middle name and nobody calls me by my middle name. When I turned around, it was her. She surprised me, I was glad she was here and she’s able to take the ring back home.”
Ollie continued to stress it was a team effort tonight.
“We stayed on their shooters, to hold that team to 34-percent is pretty good,” he said. “We started getting out on the break. Boatright was great, filling the stat sheet up, Kenton was great with 11 rebounds and I thought it was a collective effort in the second half. We needed that game.
“We had to grind it out, just like the exhibition games, we had to grind those out,” Ollie continued. “That’s what it’s going to be guys, it’s going to be a process. We’re going to keep falling in love with it and I want to make sure our team chemistry is strong. It showed up today because we stayed with each other. We took on a great challenge today and passed the first one. It was a great win by us.”
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