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 01:12 AM.
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