Huskies' worst fears realized

Providence - In a span of a few days, UConn went from standing on top of Mount Everest to tumbling into an icy abyss.

It was an alarming free fall, to say the least.

The Huskies were at a loss to explain suffering their worst loss of the season Wednesday - 81-66 to Providence at the Dunkin' Donuts Center - after playing their best game in upsetting then-No. 1 Texas last Saturday.

Both results were shocking in different ways.

"All that we worked for is kind of pointless right now, to come here and lose as bad as we did," Jerome Dyson said.

This loss will sting for a while.

The 19th-ranked Huskies (13-7, 3-4) managed to overcome their mistakes to seize three-point lead with nine and a half minutes left before completely self-destructing. They were outscored 26-8 in a brutal final nine minutes.

Acting coach George Blaney warned his team about guarding against a letdown during practice Monday. Apparently, they failed to listen.

"Just about everything that we hoped would not happen after the game on Saturday reared its head in the last nine minutes of the game," Blaney said. "We got the game right back where we wanted it and got ahead with nine minutes to go and didn't score the rest of the way.

"(Providence) played terrific."

Friar fans stormed the court just before the final buzzer. They had hurried to the exits Saturday when Providence blew a nine-point lead with 49 seconds remaining and lost to South Florida, 109-105, in overtime.

Providence (12-8, 4-4) played with the sense of desperation that UConn embraced in its last game. The energetic Friars dominated the boards, 53-38, grabbing the second-most offensive rebounds (24) by a UConn opponent this season, scoring 21 second-chance points.

And the Friars are supposed to be a weak interior team. Sophomore forward Jamine Peterson scored a game-high 23 points to go with 14 rebounds.

The Huskies played porous defense, continually allowing dribble penetration that led to a dunkfest.

"We could not contain the dribble and that annihilated us because the bigs kept coming to help," said Blaney, who once again filled in for coach Jim Calhoun (indefinite medical leave of absence).

Things got ugly fast after Stanley Robinson's corner jumper handed UConn a 58-55 lead with 9:35 remaining. The Huskies appeared to stabilize the game after blowing a 10-point first-half lead.

Bilal Dixon's dunk and Vincent Council's offensive rebound basket put the Friars ahead for good, 59-58, with 8:36 remaining and jump-started an 18-1 spurt that included 14 straight points. Most of PC's points in the second half came on shots within five feet of the basket.

After an offensive revival in the last two games, UConn bogged down in the halfcourt against an active zone and a Friar team that ranked last in scoring offense in Big East games at 84.1 points.

Trailing 60-58, Robinson threw away a pass for one of his team's 19 turnovers. On the next possession, Kemba Walker (17 points) shot an air ball on a wild drive.

After Dixon sliced through the middle of UConn's defense for an easy basket to extend the lead to 63-58, Dyson misfired on a 3-pointer. Peterson answered by scoring inside to make it 65-58.

The Huskies could do absolutely nothing on either end the rest of the way. In the final 9:35, they converted only two field goals, including one on Walker's 3-pointer with eight seconds remaining, and shot 38.7 percent overall.

Dyson had one of his worst games this season, finishing with just 12 points on 3-for-14 shooting after sinking his first two shots. Gavin Edwards finished with 17 points and six rebounds. Robinson added 14 points.

UConn remains winless in true road games, falling to 0-5.

"This is a huge step back on our part," Edwards said. "I'm not trying to look past or downplay Providence at all but this definitely was a game that we should have won and we needed to win. We just let it slip away and didn't really play as hard as we needed to.

"We lost by double-digit points. It's frustrating."

g.keefe@theday.com