Post-game breakdown: Coppin State
Not sure if Sunday afternoon’s shootout made UConn basketball fans feel better or worse about their Huskies.
UConn won the free flowing game, beating Coppin State, 106-85, at the XL Center in Hartford.
The Huskies (4-3) snapped a three-game losing streak. The Eagles fell to 1-9.
They scored over 100 points for the first time since last season against Detroit (101-55). They entered the game averaging 62 points, just 49 in the last two games.
“We’re going to take this win and we’re going to build on it…,” coach Kevin Ollie said. “We just wanted to get a win, no matter how we did it. We just wanted to stop the bleeding.”
But they played shaky defense, allowing the Eagles to score a season-high against Division I competition.
“I told the team that’s embarrassing and that we need to take pride in our defense,” senior Ryan Boatright said.
Some news, notes and quotes:
-- UConn’s starting frontcourt dominated against a smaller and far less talented frontline. Freshman Daniel Hamilton (11 points), sophomore Kentan Facey (a career-high 15 points) and sophomore Amida Brimah (career-high 40 points) combined for 66 points.
The Huskies held a 45-24 edge in rebounds overall. Brimah led the way with a career-high 12.
“It was just a very, very tough match-up for us with their size,” Coppin State coach Michael Grant said.
UConn had 16 offensive rebounds after grabbing just one the last game against Yale on Dec. 5.
-- The Huskies were far too careless with the ball, committing 18 turnovers. The Eagles scored 35 points off those mistakes.
“The thing that I didn’t like the most is points off turnovers,” Ollie said. “We’ve got to cut down our turnovers.”
-- Ollie on the win: “I’m very proud of my guys. We came out and established ourselves from the start and played very well. I liked our fast break. We got out on the break and then we established Amida. … Our ball movement was great. We had the most rebounds, I think, for this year.”
-- Hamilton and Brimah combined for alley-oops several times in the game, with the former playing the role as set-up man.
“There’s definitely some synergy they’ve got between each other, which is good and we have to continue,” Ollie said.
Hamilton finished with a career-high 11 assists.
“I thought they were trying to pressure me, so I was able to go right by them,” Hamilton said. “When I went by them, the defense collapsed and I just looked for the alley-oop.”
-- Brimah became the 17
th
player in UConn history to score 40 points or more. He also set career highs for field goals made (13), field goal attempts (13), free throws made (14) and free throw attempts (16).
-- It was the first career double-double by Brimah and Hamilton.
-- UConn scored the most points in a game since March 12, 2009, when it lost to Syracuse (127-117) in the epic six overtime battle in the Big East Conference tournament.
-- Boatright went 4-for-7 from 3-point land on the way to scoring 22 points. He had been 1-for-15 from beyond the arc in the previous four games.
-- Omar Calhoun (knee) is still sidelined. But Rodney Purvis played took a significant step forward in his recovery from a high left ankle sprain.
Purvis had eight points and four rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench.
"He needed a game like this just to get his wind back and his rhythm," Boatright said.
-- Up next: UConn plays No. 2 Duke on Thursday in East Rutherford, N.J.
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