UConn rallies again

By Al Myatt
©2015 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

GREENVILLE — In a game that progressed similarly to an earlier American Athletic Conference matchup, Connecticut was too much for East Carolina in the second half on Wednesday night before a black-out crowd of 6,856 in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.

The 2014 NCAA Tournament champions overcame a 33-24 halftime deficit to top the Pirates 60-49 as Ryan Boatwright scored 16 points. Daniel Hamilton had 17 rebounds and five assists for the Huskies (16-11, 9-6 AAC).

When the teams played in Storrs on Feb. 4, the Pirates led 34-27 after 20 minutes but the Huskies came back for a 65-52 victory.

ECU (12-16, 5-10 AAC) had a four-game winning streak at home halted despite 13 points from Marshall Guilmette and 11 from Terry Whisnant.

Caleb White had nine points in the setback and Whisnant led the Pirates in rebounding with nine.

A 3-pointer by N.C. State transfer Rodney Purvis put UConn ahead to stay at 41-38 with 11:05 left to play.

An old-fashioned 3-point play by freshman B.J. Tyson with 1:54 remaining got ECU within 54-49 but the Pirates didn't score again.

Guilmette and Antonio Robinson each had seven rebounds and three assists for ECU.

"We had great energy in the first half," Guilmette said. "In the locker room all we were saying was we've got to continue the energy for one more half. We were unable to do it. They came out and played well, shot well. We didn't do that and didn't get the result we wanted."

Purvis and Amida Brimah each had 12 points for UConn. Brimah blocked six shots.

Brimah had two fouls and played just six minutes in the first half. He played 12 minutes in the second half before fouling out.

"In the second half, the difference was the big guy (Brimah, 7 feet, 230 pounds) in the middle," said ECU coach Jeff Lebo. "He totally affected the game in all areas. Luckily, he didn't play much in the first half with fouls. He's as good a shot blocker as I've seen. He probably took away eight points that we had. He blocked some shots that were at the peak, two feet over the top of the rim. He was good."

After making 13 of 28 field goal attempts for 46.4 percent in the first half, the Pirates dropped just six of 31 after intermission for 19.4 percent.

The Huskies warmed up as ECU cooled off.

After making nine of 27 from the field in the first half for 33.3 percent, the Huskies sank 11 of 24 in the final 20 minutes for 45.8 percent.

The Huskies made 13 of 16 free throws, including 10 of 12 in the second half.

The Pirates finished eight of 12 at the line.

ECU made just three of 20 attempts from beyond the arc.

"Defensively, we had winning numbers," Lebo said. "We held them to 39 percent, 25 percent from three, 60 points, but offensively, we did not shoot the ball very well from the perimeter. When Brimah is in the game, you have to shoot well from the perimeter.

"We had nobody really shoot it very well from outside. We needed to be eight of 20, nine of 20 (from three) this game."

The Pirates had a 19-15 lead in rebounding at halftime but UConn finished with a 39-35 advantage on the boards.

ECU has a noon tipoff at Central Florida on Saturday, a game that will be shown on ESPNews.

An 83-60 loss at Cincinnati on Wednesday night dropped the Knights to 12-15 overall and 5-11 in the AAC.

ECU took a 67-49 win over UCF in Greenville on Feb. 7 as White scored 21 points and claimed nine rebounds.

PAGE UPDATED 02/26/15 02:19 PM.

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