4th Quarter ... What Happened???

[Bill In Georgia]

On the verge of a 30 point blow out. Uconn seems to have stopped playing basketball in the 4th quarter. What was a 20 plus lead almost fell to single numbers...in ten minutes we scored 6 points to their 17 ...The smooth flow we enjoyed for the past three games... STOPPED and fell back to a stand aound , motionless look . What happen to the fire of the last 11 quarters..???
Someody Please???

 

[ME Husky Fan]

Game in hand, Villanova was in crisis mode, not the case with UCONN and we stopped with the pressure we put on them for the previous 3+ quarters. Was a bit worrisome for a bit but we were able to put up a couple of baskets which put the game well in hand.

 

[meyers7]

Pretty simple. One, they milked the clock. Two, they just didn't play real well. When they took their foot off the gas, the car (offense) sputtered. Game was never in doubt though.

 

[Topdawg]

I had assumed the team had slowed down to avoid potential injuries, since the game was already won. Then I saw Geno on the post game presser. The team’s performance was not what he expected would happen. He let it go as just one of those things. I am sure it will come up in the next practice.

Cannot have this happen in the NCAA tournament!

 

[David54]

On offense run out the clock. On defense don’t foul.

 

[hoopsnloops32]

Looked like they were avoiding injuries to me as Villanova was betting very aggressive towards the end.

 

[CL82]

Pretty simple. One, they milked the clock. Two, they just didn't play real well. When they took their foot off the gas, the car (offense) sputtered. Game was never in doubt though.

Agree. The take away from this is that when the team is playing at full throttle, we are very good, but that requires our maintaining our aggressive defense the entire game.

 

[Littlemin]

The players proved once again to be human and played the clock. Some fans, meanwhile, prove the same by being totally unreasonable in their criticism of the team having the audacity to deny them another 30 point victory; two out of three just wasn’t enough. Eleven consecutive, intense, well played quarters also wasn’t enough, never mind the championship being well in hand, because the robots again malfunctioned and took their foot off the pedal a bit.

 

[cgshuskie]

Uconn took its foot off the petal but that was of no consequence. The game was already won! The bigs and the guards played aggressively and well all game. Azzi finally came on, three 3's. The beat goes on.....

 

[topogigio]

It's all in the math; hold the ball for almost the full 30 seconds on each possession, and make the clock your friend. If you look at Geno on the sideline, he shakes his head after shots taken too fast, or just plain dumb shots. He is constantly telling them to cycle through their plays and use the clock. Basic basketball.

 

[Kat]

As "strength of competition" is a major influence on the rankings, it's not smart to stomp an opponent by 30 points as they will drop in the polls and you won't move up. As is, Nova moved up to 10 and UConn moved up to 7.

 

[Centerstream]

On the verge of a 30 point blow out. Uconn seems to have stopped playing basketball in the 4th quarter. What was a 20 plus lead almost fell to single numbers...in ten minutes we scored 6 points to their 17 ...The smooth flow we enjoyed for the past three games... STOPPED and fell back to a stand aound , motionless look . What happen to the fire of the last 11 quarters..???
Someody Please???

"Prevent Offense".

 

[wingsfan055]

Pretty simple. Don't overthink it.The game was won. They took it easy. If that was the second quarter then I agree that would be an area of concern. The third quarter was a thing of beauty. Of course, the UConn bettors weren't happy though!

 

[jaydee602]

As "strength of competition" is a major influence on the rankings, it's not smart to stomp an opponent by 30 points as they will drop in the polls and you won't move up. As is, Nova moved up to 10 and UConn moved up to 7.

I agree, but UCONN was already #7 & Nova was already #10 before the game.

 

[TWG236]

My take was that with the win in hand, Geno gave Villanova a chance to tighten up the score. They are #10 and I believe he didn't want to blow them out and somehow effect their post season seating. He believes in making the conference better and although he wouldn't sacrifice a game, unless he really didn't like the coach, he wouldn't care about the final score.

 

[Tonyc]

Bill

Good to see you back ole friend. We had control and the lead. No need to take a chance on anyone getting injured. If you noticed a couple of times Azzi drove to the basket and didnt attempt a layup. I think that had something to do with getting hurt. A couple of those dribble drives resulted in passes out and one a stop let the defender go by then a shot jumper.

I was not concerned about slowing it down and pulling back just because of what we've been through this season. We now prepare for the NCAAs. Everybody back, rested, and smiling. We are on track. UConn healthy as could expect and rested made a statement this weekend. I will remain positive about the rest of the season. When you have players like Azzi and Caroline coming off the bench healthy and rested well thats pretty scary.

 

[JoePgh]

No, this is factually incorrect. Per the box score at uconnhuskies.com, Villanova was 1 for 7 from the arc in the fourth quarter, and only 5 for 15 overall in the quarter.

The story was at the free throw line, where Villanova was 6 for 8 while UConn did not attempt a free throw in the quarter. Eigunht of Villanova's 14 free throw attempts occurred in the final quarter. Why would a team with a big lead be committing so many fouls at the end of the game?

If you want to find things to be concerned about, look at Villanova's 17 offensive rebounds compared to UConn's 7. That led to 70 field goal attempts by Villanova vs. 55 by UConn.

On the plus side, UConn shot nearly 50% and held Villanova to 30%. It didn't help the Wildcats that they took 29 3-point attempts and only made 5. Their three main gunners (Siegrist, Olsen, and Maddie Burke) were 3 for 20 from distance. Their output was matched much more efficiently by Azzi alone, who was 3 for 8 from the arc (and we all thought she was having a bad shooting night).

To me, the biggest concern is the failure of UConn's forwards to clear the defensive boards against a smaller Villanova frontcourt. Christina Dalce grabbed 11 rebounds, 6 of which were offensive.

 

[jaydee602]

I'm surprised Geno didn't put Amari & Ines in the game with a 20+ point lead, especially in the last few minutes so they could get their name in the box score of the Championship Game. Even though it was an 11 point final, the Huskies led by 16 with 1:30 left & the game was decided. Plus, the bench players might have brought energy to the team.

 

[Kat]

I agree, but UCONN was already #7 & Nova was already #10 before the game.

Yes, but neither of them would have been ranked so highly if the Huskies had dropped Nova by 30.

 

[BBallF]

Pretty simple. Don't overthink it.The game was won. They took it easy. If that was the second quarter then I agree that would be an area of concern. The third quarter was a thing of beauty. Of course, the UConn bettors weren't happy though!

Very unhappy actually.

 

[cohenzone]

In the first 3 minutes of the 4th quarter Nova had knocked off, what 2 points of the lead. There was zero chance that Nova coukd come close to making it a game. They didn’t.