Solo Ball (1) goes up for layup against Villanova. Ball led all scorers with 24 points as Huskies defeated Wildcats in overtime. (Photo by Jessica Hill/Associated Press)
In January 2020, after a hard-fought, close loss in Philadelphia, the coach who would later win a pair of national championships in the next four years issued his now-famous proclamation.
“You know, people better get us now,” Hurley said then. “That’s all. You better get us, because it’s coming.”
Two years later, in one of UConn’s more memorable conference games, the Huskies stormed back from a double-digit deficit and a Hurley ejection by official James Breeding to stun a Wildcat team that would go on to the Final Four.
Saturday’s encounter between the two heavyweights of college basketball produced another chapter in the history books, as UConn needed five extra minutes to overcome the young, scrappy Wildcats and leave PeoplesBank Arena with a 75-67 overtime win.
“That’s the true definition of a Big East Conference game right there,” Hurley remarked as the second-ranked Huskies (19-1, 9-0 Big East) won their 15th consecutive game, the longest win streak for the program since the 1994-95 campaign. “For me, reflecting on it now, when I got to UConn, we were shit and ’Nova was on top. It was the best program in the country, and then we rose and they struggled a little bit.”
“I think what you saw today is going to be the beginning of these UConn-Villanova games, classic games where both teams are championship-level at the same time. What they look like in year one with Kevin (Willard) and the (coaching) staff, they made us earn the shit out of this one.”
For a majority of the afternoon, the Wildcats played a carbon copy of their winning effort Wednesday against Georgetown, in which they conceded just 23 first-half points to the Hoyas before pulling away after halftime. UConn trailed at the intermission, 31-27, and stayed within a bucket in the early minutes of the second stanza, when the game appeared to tilt away from the host Huskies.
With the score tied at 33, Braylon Mullins appeared to take an elbow to his forehead, hitting the floor while fighting Villanova’s Acaden Lewis for a loose ball. The freshman sharpshooter did not return to the contest and was later revealed to be in concussion protocol in Hurley’s postgame press conference, placing his availability for Tuesday’s game against Providence in doubt.
Two minutes after that, when a foul was called on Silas Demary, Jr., Breeding called a technical foul on Hurley, harkening back to 2022, only this time with a less demonstrative coach on the bench.
“History almost repeated itself,” Hurley joked. “I was proud of my impulse control, as well as James gave me a little bit of a leash there. I just felt like we weren’t getting to the free throw line. We were driving the rim, we were attacking the paint. I thought Alex (Karaban) got clearly fouled on the offensive rebound and they called kind of a touch foul on the other end. I didn’t like how the game was being officiated at that point, and that’s why I did what I did.”
“But you should have saw me and James the rest of the way. I thought we worked great together after that.”
Trailing by six after free throws stemming from the personal foul on Demary and technical against Hurley, UConn surged into the lead with nine straight points, punctuating the run with a Solo Ball three to take a 40-39 lead with 12:13 remaining in regulation. The triple was part of a resurgent afternoon for Ball, whose 24 points led all scorers on a day where he shot 5-for-12 from three-point range and appeared to finally emerge from his season-long slump from behind the line.
“For him, this was a really good step forward,” Hurley insisted. “The guy is a beautiful shooter. I just think the shooters, sometimes when you have the weapons that we have when Bray’s in there, you don’t get the volume. Solo’s volume went up today, which then just gave him a lot more freedom. The ball was in his hands a lot more.”
But Villanova was not done yet, answering back with a 7-0 spurt of its own to go up four before Alex Karaban shook off a quiet first half with his first points of the day at the 9:03 mark of the second half. The veteran would later cash in a 3-pointer and a conventional three-point play down the stretch to keep UConn in front, until Matt Hodge splashed a triple from the left corner with just over a minute remaining in regulation to give the Wildcats a 61-59 advantage.
The Huskies tied the score on the ensuing possession when Tarris Reed, Jr. was able to put back a Demary miss to forge a 61-all deadlock, where the margin remained as Jayden Ross denied a go-ahead three by Bryce Lindsay, who redeemed himself by stripping Karaban in the final seconds to force overtime. Neither side led by more than one possession in the extra session until the final minute, when after a pair of Karaban free throws put UConn in front, Ball secured the rebound on a missed layup by Lewis. From there, Demary finished the job, converting a driving layup to further an 8-0 run to close the game.
His team bent, but not broken, Hurley acknowledged the flaws that still exist in the on-court product, but opted to celebrate the success and live in the moment before shifting gears to a Providence side that comes into Gampel Pavilion Tuesday intent on avenging a loss on January 7 where the Friars led by double digits before falling in overtime.
“You can’t take the joy,” Hurley said. “That was a joyful locker room. Listen, I’m gonna watch the film, you’re gonna see the ways you’re shooting yourself in the foot, you’re gonna see the mistakes…dying on screens, not getting a defensive rebound, getting a lead (and) not being able to extend it. But listen, we’re 19-1, we’ve won 15 in a row and we played a heck of a non-conference schedule. I’m not gonna take the joy out of being in a great spot.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.