Heartbroken in Hartford

HARTFORD, Conn. – It took 32 minutes for a team to break the 40-point mark. There was almost a… HARTFORD, Conn. – It took 32 minutes for a team to break the 40-point mark. There was almost a physical altercation. There were 63 missed shots. There were bodies on the floor and elbows flying.

The game was a microcosm of Big East basketball.

It was high stakes and hot tempers at the XL Center Saturday, but Connecticut (16-5, 6-3 Big East) emerged victorious, 60-53, in a slugfest that took all 40 minutes to decide. The Huskies upset No. 18 Pitt (17-5, 5-4) to win their fifth consecutive contest.

“It was a war,” Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. “Everybody puts the gloves on for, well, it’s 12 rounds now, but it used to be 15 rounds. Last man standing, and I think, very simply, we were.”

In a game that featured 10 lead changes and seven ties, a back-breaking 3-pointer by Connecticut guard Craig Austrie put the Huskies in the lead for good with 2:03 remaining in the contest. From there, Connecticut sealed its victory with free-throw shooting and suffocating perimeter defense to close the game on a 9-2 run.

“Austrie’s 3 knocked the wind out of us,” Pitt forward Sam Young said, adding that at each road game Pitt feels like it’s right there to win but can’t close out games. “Every time we crept into it, they hit a big shot.”

The raucous crowd saw its Huskies hold Pitt to 32-percent shooting. Young, the team’s leading scorer who averages 18.1 points per game, had 18 points but shot just 7 of 21.

The Panthers entered the game shooting 46 percent as a team from the field and 36 percent from 3-point range but made just eight shots in the first half and finished 19 of 59 from the field and 2 for 16 from 3.

Connecticut’s defense played a big part – the Huskies blocked 10 shots and rarely allowed any penetration after a rocky start.

“They’re tough,” Pitt center DeJuan Blair said. “They’re real physical. They did an excellent job executing.”

At first, Pitt appeared comfortable against Connecticut’s taller frontcourt. The Huskies essentially start two power forwards – 6-foot-7 Jeff Adrien and 6-9 Stanley Robinson – and 7-3 center Hasheem Thabeet. In a sequel to his first big-time matchup with a 7-footer – the first being against 7-2 Georgetown center Roy Hibbert in which he had 15 points and nine rebounds – Blair had 13 points and 13 rebounds. His performance didn’t come easily, though.

Blair opened the game with several missed putbacks, clearly feeling the presence of Thabeet’s Big East-leading shot blocking. Young said he and his teammates felt Thabeet’s presence the whole game.

“Thabeet did a great job altering shots,” Young said.

Calhoun added, “Hasheem took over the game late.” Thabeet finished with five blocks.

It was another big win for a Connecticut team reeling from an incident two weeks ago, when starting guard Jerome Dyson and reserve guard Doug Wiggins were found by campus police with vodka and cognac in Wiggins’ car. Both were cited for possession of alcohol by a minor, and Wiggins was also charged with driving on a suspended license. It was a scandal that rocked Connecticut and, as Calhoun put it, banded the remaining players together.

“My job started a week ago Friday,” Calhoun said in reference to the incident that left Dyson suspended indefinitely and Wiggins held out for two games. “We had to convince these [remaining] kids that they can do it. They’re listening.”

Starting point guard A.J. Price helped his teammates get comfortable. The 6-3 junior had 21 points, six rebounds and five assists, and his 11 halftime points kept the Huskies in the game when it looked like they’d let it slip away.

“He was absolutely sensational,” Calhoun said. “He’s as good a guard as there is in this league.”

Connecticut started its seventh consecutive win with some jitters. The Huskies committed 11 turnovers in the first half and needed a 9-1 run, led by Price’s five points, to tie Pitt at the halftime break, 22-22.

“We turned the ball over a lot, but we turned it over two times in the second half,” Calhoun said. “We did quietly address that at halftime,” he added with a laugh.

Blair was confident that once starting point guard Levance Fields returns from a broken fifth metatarsal in his foot, the Panthers will feel a lot more confident in games like Saturday’s.

“We have to bounce back,” Blair said. “Once Levance comes back, we’ll be even tougher. That’s not to say [the healthy guards] aren’t playing well, they’ve been great. But once those guys can play their normal positions and Levance gets back, we will be excellent.”

Calhoun agreed.

“They’re a good basketball team,” Calhoun said. “They still have soul, they still have heart, but that little point guard [Fields] gets them going.”

Dixon wasn’t in any mood for excuses for his team’s loss, pointing to missed shots and foul trouble as the main reasons the Panthers faltered.

“It was a disappointing game for us, to be in a situation to win the game,” Dixon said. “It comes down to getting a stop, and we didn’t.”

Young said, “We’re not going to settle for this. It’s frustrating.”

Is he happy with where the team is halfway through the Big East schedule, toting a 5-4 conference record?

“Where we are isn’t that important,” Dixon said. “It’s where we are going to be.”