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MHERST - On almost every other night, the effort and the emotion would have
been more than enough. But the nation's No. 1-ranked team doesn't come to
town every night, either.At least the University of Massachusetts left Mullins Center with the knowledge that Connecticut was happy to escape a howling, unfriendly building with a win. The 59-54 Huskies' victory extended the UMass losing streak to four but left the Minutemen with a message they had desperately sought, which was that when UMass -- which meets Boston College Saturday in Worcester -- shows up with its game face on, they can still keep company with the giants of college basketball.
"UMass is just what I thought they'd be," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said after the Huskies rose to 7-0, while UMass dropped to 1-4. "They were hungry, and they were tough."
With a capacity crowd of 9,493 and a national TV audience looking on, UMass got off to its first good start in four games, trailed anyway by eight at halftime and then dramatically fought back, using a 15-6 run to come within 45-44 with 10 minutes left.
But the Minutemen could never take the lead, and they were done in by the UConn bench. Albert Mouring, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, scored 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting in 20 minutes, while 6-11 Souleymane Wane had six points, five rebounds and two blocks in 15.
"We played a bad game on offense, but I think UMass had a lot to do with that," Calhoun said. "Our bench made me happy, but our starters didn't."
Even as its losing streak reached four for the first time since 1990, UMass showed defensive grit. UConn stars Khalid El-Amin and Richard Hamilton each shot 3 for 11 and scored 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Audio clip: Listen to some of Bruiser's post-game comments. 30k WAVCourtesey: WHMP |
Offensively, UMass came up big on the inside, and for the first time showed it could solve double-teams, which Lari Ketner has been seeing as a steady diet.
"That was a key focus at practice," said forward Ajmal Basit, who found himself free while Ketner was double-teamed, and scored 12 points (10 in the first half) with nine rebounds. Ketner led all scorers with 15 points, and had six rebounds with three blocked shots. The strategy of bottling him up inside no longer looks like a surefire way to shut down UMass. "We had a lot of success doubling down in the past, but UMass worked very hard on that," Calhoun said. "And Ketner was a major factor. He only had three assists, but he passed well in the post, worked for position and made it very difficult for us."
UMass jumped to a 15-10 lead, but a 23-8 UConn burst gave the Huskies a 33-23 lead, and it was 37-29 at halftime. But after shooting 55.6 percent in the first half, UConn cooled off to 38.1 percent after the break, and had UMass shot better than 39.6 for the game, the Minutemen might have come away with one of their all-time great wins.
 Bruiser confers with a ref. |
UMass was there in the end last night. It was 55-52 when Ketner fouled out with 1:40 left, and Hamilton's jumper, followed by two El-Amin free throws, made it 59-52 with 37 seconds left.
Mike Babul did an outstanding defensive job on Hamilton, whose biggest basket was a 3-pointer that gave the Huskies a 50-46 lead with 6:46 left. But UConn's Ricky Moore was equally solid on Monty Mack. The UMass guard scored 10 points, but six came on back-to-back 3-pointers in the second half, when Moore - who played 35 minutes despite an injured right shoulder - was out of the game.
"We didn't give UConn easy transition baskets, which we had talked about," Flint said. "The only guy who didn't miss was Mouring."
"All we did was play with a lot of heart," said senior guard Charlton Clarke, clearly relieved that the traditional UMass spirit had resurfaced, even in defeat. "I had been hollering and screaming at these guys, but I didn't anybody was listening."
Even so, UMass hasn't won in more than three weeks.
"Maybe it's a pattern," Clarke said. "We started slowly last year and the year before. But if we play this hard, we'll come out of it."
MHERST - In a show of solidarity, University of Massachusetts men's
basketball players brought out the clippers for the big game against the
University of Connecticut.
 Lari Ketner sported the new smooth look. |
Immediately after Saturday night's 88-66 loss to Marshall, the team engaged in a venting session during which every player and coach voiced his opinion on what was wrong with the Minutemen.
UMass coach Bruiser Flint said the session was good for the team and released some tension and that now the team needed to calm down and play basketball.
DOUBLE TAKE: That guy walking around the Mullins Center on crutches last night was not Mike Babul. It was his twin brother, Jon, a member of the Georgia Tech squad.
Jon Babul has a severely sprained ankle and is expected to miss three weeks for the Yellow Jackets. He was his team's leading rebounder, averaging 9.5 boards per game before the injury.
NO. 1 AT HOME?: While UMass has great success against No. 1 teams, none of the wins have come at Mullins Center.
When UMass beat top-ranked Kentucky 92-82 in the 1995-96 season opener, it was at Auburn Hills, Mich., in the Great Eight. The year before, the Minutemen blew out No. 1 and defending national champion Arkansas 104-80 in the Tip-Off Classic in Springfield.
In 1993-94, UMass defeated North Carolina 91-86 in overtime, again defeating the defending national champs but at Madison Square Garden in the Preseason NIT.
Still, the Minutemen sported a perfect 3-0 record against top-ranked teams, and the Huskies entered last night's game No. 1.
MUSCLE FLEXING: MassMutual, the sponsor for the U Game, made sure everyone in the Mullins Center and watching the game on ESPN knew who the sponsor was.
The UMass logo at center court was covered by an extensive MassMutual logo as well as another on the scorer's table.
SERIES NOTES: This was the 101st game between UMass and UConn, with the Huskies holding 62-38 edge, having won the last seven meetings.
Last night was the first meeting on the UMass campus since 1990, when the Huskies prevailed 94-75 at Curry Hicks Cage. The last two games in the series were played at Hartford Civic Center.
When the Minutemen have faced the Huskies in Massachusetts, they trail by one game 26-25. But their record against UConn in the month of December is 9-16, which includes the last two meetings.
UMass has not defeated UConn since 1983, a 67-65 overtime thriller at the Cage. That win is the only one for the Minutemen over the Huskies in the last 20 years, which covers 16 games.
ET CETERA: Mullins Center had a tournament atmosphere last night as it welcomed the No. 1 in the country for the first time. The sold-out building hadn't been host for such a high-profile opponent since Tim Duncan and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons were here during the 1995-96 Final Four season.
MHERST - They jostled him. They coaxed him. They scolded him.
They pleaded with him. No matter how hard his teammates and
coaches tried, nothing had seemed to cure Lari Ketner, the slumbering giant
of the University of Massachusetts basketball team, of his narcolepsy on the
hardwood.
Last night Ketner awakened by scoring a team-high 15 points, including 11 in the second half, against top-ranked Connecticut. Problem was, the output was too little too late for the Minutemen, who dropped a 59-54 decision in the U Game before a Mullins Center crowd of 9,493.
UConn (7-0) staved off spirited UMass (1-4) despite a poor shooting display by Richard Hamilton, who was held in check by Mike Babul and wound up with 10 points, 1 in the first half.
Looking to make a fresh start, the Minutemen - with the exception of Babul - took the court sporting shaved heads. It appeared to give UMass an edge that seemed to be missing in its previous four games.
The new look seemed to lead to a newfound sense of identity for the Minutemen, who in the first eight minutes played with offensive opportunism and defensive tenacity reminiscent of their Refuse to Lose days under former coach John Calipari.
Video clip: UMass' Lari Ketner gets the rebound and finishes with the jam. 681k AVICourtesey: ESPN |
Kevin Freeman, who along with Albert Mouring had 9 points to lead the Huskies in the first half, tipped in an offensive rebound to pull UConn within 1. But Monty Mack induced Freeman to commit his first personal and went to the line for a pair of free throws with 14:40 to go.
Hamilton was conspicuously quiet as he struggled against UMass's tenacious defense, which held UConn's best player scoreless in the first 11:11. He got just four looks at the basket in the half and was twice blocked by Babul.
UMass twice extended its advantage to 5 (13-8 and 15-10) before the Huskies scored three straight baskets - by Edmund Saunders, Jake Voskuhl, and Mouring - to take a 16-15 lead.
Basit answered with a pair of free throws and converted a Ketner low-post feed into an easy layup to give UMass a 19-16 lead with 9:58 remaining. But the Huskies stepped up their defensive pressure and outscored UMass, 21-10, in the final 10 minutes. Hamilton's contribution in that stretch was limited to a free throw with 8:49 remaining.
The Minutemen, who shot 10 for 26 from the field and committed 10 turnovers in the half, managed just two baskets, by Basit and Ketner, as UConn twice built the lead to 10 (33-23 and 37-27). Mack collected a loose-ball rebound and stuck it for a buzzer-beating basket that cut the halftime spread to 8.
Hamilton got his first basket of the night with 19:22 left in the second half. He lost the handle, collecting the ball in time to convert before the 35-second shot clock expired.
 Lari Ketner led UMass with 15 points. |
Souleymane Wane made it 41-36 with an offensive put-back, but Mack heated up from the 3-point stripe, sandwiching a pair of treys between UConn baskets by Khalid El-Amin and Mouring, to pull UMass within 3, 45-42. Ketner then scored back-to-back baskets that twice cut UConn's lead to 1 (45-44 and 47-46).
Babul continued his defensive dominance of Hamilton, who was unable to shake free from the UMass junior. How tough was it for Hamilton? He missed on a transition dunk when he was met at the rim by Babul and Mack. He swung around to the wing, gave Babul a ball fake, and drove to the lane for a pull-up jumper. But Babul somehow recovered in time to disrupt Hamilton's shot by putting a hand in his face.
Hamilton finally got on track when he drilled a 3-pointer from the corner to give UConn a 50-46 lead. Ketner, who played the final 7:01 with four fouls, answered Voskuhl's jump hook with a thunderous jam that made it 52-48.
Hamilton drew contact from Babul as he pulled up for a 3-pointer and hit all three foul shots to give UConn a 55-48 lead with 3:42 left. UMass cut it to 55-52, but the Huskies held on to keep their perfect record and top ranking intact.
MHERST - It has been a long time since New England has had a signature college basketball game.
Oh, the rivalries, ranging from Boston College-Providence to Providence-Connecticut and Northeastern-Boston University, have had a sense of history about them.
But in terms of impact? Forgetaboutit. Nothing like Duke-North Carolina or Kentucky-Indiana, or even a Big East staple like Syracuse-St.John's.
 Monty Mack gets smothered by Jake Voskuhl. |
On paper, it looked like a mismatch. No. 1 UConn against 1-3 UMass, coming off a 22-point loss to Marshall and struggling to find its own identity as well as a win.
The win for the Minutemen will have to wait a while. The identity? That definitely came last night as they gave the Huskies all they could handle before UConn hung on for a 59-54 victory.
It was as much a war as it was a game. UConn earned every point. UMass played the type of basketball that has made it a solid NCAA tournament team.
UMass hung tough, from center Lari Ketner, who brought the Minutemen back from an 8-point halftime deficit, to Mike Babul, who was in Richard Hamilton's face so closely and so doggedly that only when the UConn star went to the foul line could he get more than a foot away from the UMass forward.
UConn was better, is better. But UMass conceded nothing.
The crowd of 9,493 was on its feet from the start, creating an atmosphere that was every bit as hostile as North Carolina faces when it comes to Duke or the Dukies encounter when they journey to Chapel Hill.
It was a rivalry. A big-time rivalry between two teams who will get better as the season progresses.
There was some question about UMass and its attitude as it dropped three straight heading into the U Game.
Not anymore.
There were questions about Ketner, the 6-foot-10-inch senior who has always had so much potential stitched into his uniform but never seemed to show it.
In the second half, Ketner showed everyone what he can do, pouring in 11 of his 15 points and turning the game the Minutemen's way before he fouled out with 1:40 left.
But UConn has not climbed to the top of the national polls without being tough enough to handle challenges.
What is different about this year's version is that the Huskies can solve their own problems.
Last night Hamilton was held to a point in the first half by Babul, yet the Huskies had an 8-point lead.
That's because they merely switched to Plan B and Plan C. Albert Mouring came off the bench and scored a team-high 13 points. ''He showed up just in time,'' said UConn coach Jim Calhoun, who has built a basketball empire in Storrs.
That is the difference between this UConn team and previous ones. The Huskies do not have to rely on the likes of Hamilton or guard Khalid El-Amin to have super nights.
''Overall, we gutted it out,'' said Calhoun. ''We played poorly offensively, but UMass had something to do with that.''
Yes, it did. The Minutemen might be 1-4, but the grousing should be at a minimum.
''If we can play like this, we'll see UConn in the NCAA tournament,'' said guard Charlton Clarke, who spearheaded a two-hour team meeting after Saturday night's drubbing at Marshall.
The teams will go their separate ways now. UConn will head to Pittsburgh for its Big East opener. UMass will travel down the Mass. Pike to Worcester to face BC.
The Huskies did nothing to prove they shouldn't be No. 1. Last night marked the third in a four-game stretch - Washington, Michigan State, UMass, and Pittsburgh - that Calhoun said would give a better indication of how good the Huskies are.
Although it's too early to make any definitive judgments, only Maryland and Duke appear to be in the Huskies' class at this stage of the season. Barring something crazy, UConn's reign could be a long one.
When the Huskies were elevated to No. 1 last week, Calhoun accepted the ranking without flinching - another sign of the confidence evident in Storrs these days.
''I'd rather be No. 1 late in March,'' said Calhoun. ''But we'll take this.''
For UMass, the great expectations of the preseason have given way to the harsh reality of a four-game losing streak, which coach Bruiser Flint hoped bottomed out with the loss at Marshall.
UMass is better than a 1-4 team, and Flint knows it. So does UConn.
UMass knows how to win. It has been to the Final Four, which UConn has never done.
The Minutemen know what it's like to be No. 1, to have people say you are the best team in the country.
Now it is UConn's turn, and last night the Huskies played like a team capable of winning a national championship.
The U Game, which will continue at least through the 2003-04 season, is New England's signature game.
Last night it showed why.
MHERST -- The UMass Minutemen had hoped this season they'd be
hearing the fans at the Mullins Center chant, "We're No. 1!"
They just never expected them to be UConn fans.
Last night, the No. 1 UConn Huskies handed the Minutemen their fourth consecutive defeat, 59-54, at a sold-out Mullins Center.
The Minutemen played their best game of the season by far. Had they played as well in their other games, they probably would have been undefeated entering last night's game rather than 1-3.
"If we play like this every night, we'll see UConn again in the tournament," UMass senior guard Charlton Clarke said.
Albert Mouring scored 13 points and Khalid El-Amin added 12 to pace 7-0 UConn, which was ranked atop both major polls for the second consecutive week. The Huskies, playing their first road game of the season and their initial game ever at the Mullins Center, also got 11 points from Richard Hamilton, 10 of them in the second half.
Lari Ketner led UMass with 15 points. Ketner, held to 2-of-7 shooting in the first half, finally kicked his game into high gear for the first time this season after intermission. The 6-foot-10 senior fouled out with 1:40 left, however. Ajmal Basit had 12 points and 9 rebounds for the Minutemen. Monty Mack had 10 points.
UConn's bench outscored that of UMass, 23-6.
"This was no moral victory for us," UMass coach Bruiser Flint said. "We wanted to win this game."
UMass will try to regroup Saturday night when it takes on Boston College (2-5) in the Commonwealth Classic at the Worcester Centrum.
All the Minutemen, except junior Mike Babul, shaved their heads this week in a show of unity. They were willing to try anything to snap themselves out of their early-season slump. The Minutemen were picked as high as ninth in the nation -- by Sports Illustrated -- during preseason, but they've failed to live up to their promise.
Mack's 3-pointer capped a 10-2 surge that pulled UMass within 41-39 with 12:41 left.
"We were playing great defense," UMass junior Mike Babul said. "If we continue to make stops, we're eventually going to score."
The Minutemen got as close as 47-46 with 8:55 remaining on a Ketner layup, but Ketner went to the bench a little later after picking up his fourth foul and UMass went more than 4.5 minutes without a point.
Hamilton then finally got going. His 3-pointer with 6:44 left made it 50-46 and his three foul shots with 3:42 remaining boosted UConn's lead to 55-48. The Huskies limited UMass to only two points in the final 2:20 to hold on for the victory.
"The word 'terrific' doesn't come to mind, but the word 'lousy' doesn't either," said UConn coach Jim Calhoun. "I like (that) we got challenged and we answered the challenge."
UConn has beaten UMass eight consecutive times and 16 of the last 17. More importantly, the Huskies have won each of the last three years since the rivalry was renewed after a five-year absence. UConn leads the overall series, 63-38.
The sellout crowd was rocking early in the game as the Minutemen led for much of the first 10 minutes. UMass was successful getting the ball inside early on. Basit, a 6-foot-9 junior forward, had eight of his 10 first-half points in the first 10:03. His layup gave the Minutemen their largest lead, 15-10. His two foul shots and layup gave them their last lead, 19-16.
The Huskies then shut down the Minutemen's inside game and forced them to hit from the outside. As has been the case all season, they couldn't. So UConn went on a 17-4 tear to grab a double-digit lead, 33-23, with 1:44 remaining in the half. Mack hit a jumper at the halftime buzzer to pull the Minutemen within 37-29.
UConn led at the half even though its leading scorer this season, Hamilton (20.7 ppg), was held to one point by Babul. Hamilton still hasn't fully recovered from a foot injury this summer.
"He's as good a player as there is in the country. He's just not playing like it right now," Calhoun said.
UMass had defeated the previous three No. 1 teams it faced -- Kentucky to open the 1995-96 season, defending national champion Arkansas in the 1994-95 opener, and defending national champion North Carolina in the semifinals of the 1993-94 Preseason NIT.
One reason that streak came to an end last night was that Marcus Camby was sitting in the stands and not playing on the court. Camby, currently locked out along with the rest of the NBA players, scored 32 points in that Kentucky game three years ago.
MHERST, Mass. - The sum of all UConn's fears
were nearly realized at the Mullins Center
Wednesday night.
The Huskies ran into a sinewy UMass team that wanted to flex its pythons on ESPN and purge itself of a three-game losing streak.
The No. 1 Huskies had all they could handle - including a re-awakened Lari Ketner - but still managed to tough out a 59-54 victory before a wild sellout crowd of 9,493.
 Kevin Freeman takes it to Mike Babul and Ajmal Basit. |
For UMass (1-4), Ketner had 15 points before fouling out. Ajmal Basit had 12 points and Monty Mack 10.
Powered by its frenzied crowd, UMass erased a 10-point deficit early in the second half. UMass did it with a 17-8 run in which Ketner had nine points and Mack hit two three-pointers. With 7 minutes, 26 seconds remaining, UMass had possession and a chance to take the lead. It was 47-46.
The Minutemen turned the ball over when Mike Babul ran into a crowd and, on the same play, Ketner picked up his fourth foul.
When play resumed, Hamilton drilled a three-pointer from in front of the UConn bench to put the Huskies ahead, 50-46. That was nearly the final turning point.
With 3:42 remaining, Hamilton was fouled while shooting a three. He nodded his head, lifted his arm, then went to the free throw line and knocked down three. He put the Huskies ahead, 55-48.
Still, it wasn't over. Babul and Basit scored successively for UMass to cut UConn's lead to 55-52 with 2:15 remaining.
Ketner drew his fifth foul on the next possession.
Although Ricky Moore wound up turning the ball over on the elongated possession, UConn got it right back when Babul dived into El-Amin in search of a loose ball. With 57.3 seconds remaining, Hamilton hit a runner along the right side of the lane. The shot had an incredible degree of difficulty. UConn had a 57-52 lead and UMass was in a situation where it had to foul.
When the buzzer finally sounded, El- Amin threw the ball into the crowd.
Whew.
This game marked a shift in the U- Game series to campus sites. The series will rotate between Mullins, Gampel Pavilion and the Civic Center for the next five years. Hopefully, a new contract will be signed somewhere in there. There's a lot of juice that flows when these rivals meet.
The Mullins Center was certainly tremoring well before gametime. Further, the players on both teams seemed to take those tremors and direct them at their nerve endings at the game's start. The first half was rife with turnovers, most of which were not caused by pressure. Hamilton dropped the ball on the way to the hoop. Charlton Clarke dribbled the ball off his foot. No-look passes were replaced by no-receiver passes. There were 18 first-half turnovers, 10 by UMass.
The Minutemen eased their nerves with all-out aggression, especially on the defensive end. Hamilton was their prime target. He couldn't get near the paint without getting bruised. He wound up shooting 0-for-4 in the half.
It was apparent that the Huskies wanted Hamilton to get going at the outset - and he was not allowed. Although Freeman had a three-point play and El-Amin a 25-foot three-point field goal, it was UMass that put together the first significant run.
It was an 11-2 spurt that was fueled largely on the defensive end. During the run, Hamilton had two shots blocked and El-Amin had one stripped from behind. UMass turned right around and scored four points on the fastbreak in the run, which gave it a 13-8 lead.
UConn's comeback was at first shrouded by the throaty crowd. But soon, the Huskies emerged from the deafening haze.
It started with a little 6-0 squirt, capped by a 14-foot floater from Mouring. After Basit scored four in a row, the Huskies took subtle command on both ends of the floor.
 Chris Kirkland tries to stop Kevin Freeman. |
While UConn was doing all this, UMass was turning the ball over five times and missing 8 of 10 from the field.
The Huskies had a 37-27 lead after the big run and a 37-29 lead at halftime. Mack gave the Minutemen some momentum with a rebound-shot at the buzzer.
Freeman and Mouring had nine points apiece in the first half. UConn wound up shooting 56 percent from the field. UMass shot 39 percent after starting the half 4- for-8.
Hamilton came out of the locker room and hit his first field goal of the game on UConn's second possession of the second half. That put the Huskies back up by 10, 39-29.
There followed a 10-2 run by UMass that brought the Minutemen to 41-39.
Mack pumped his fist after he finished the run with a three-point field goal with 12:40 remaining.
UMass was back into it - and, oh, so was the crowd.
MHERST, Mass. -- UMass forward Mike Babul
takes pride in being called on to defend the
opposition's best player.
Most of last season, Babul believed he did that well.
Still, there's one player who, without hesitation, Babul admits he couldn't shut down -- UConn swingman Richard Hamilton.
"He's a big challenge and I tried to come out and do my best against him," Babul said. "But he's a great player, he's avergaing, what, 25 points a game? You're only going to be able to shut down a guy like that for so long. He hit some big shots in the end for them. That's the kind of player he is."
Babul did do an excellent job defending Hamilton Wednesday night -- for the most part.
But good players can only be kept down for so long.
Hamilton, who was 1-for-9 at one point and 0-for-4 in the first half, finished with 11 points on 3-for-11 shooting, but his third field goal with 57 seconds left helped No. 1-ranked UConn distance itself from the Minutemen in the Huskies' 59-54 victory.
And the All-American did it with an All-American move.
Hamilton drove the lane, and with one hand, cupped the ball under his right armpit through three defenders, leapt off one foot and swished a short jumper that gave the Huskies a 57-52 lead.
"Really, that was the game-winning shot," center Jake Voskuhl said. "And their defense came to play tonight, they made it tough for him, but he hit a big, big shot at the end for us."
Hamilton lit up Babul and the Minutemen for 21 points last season.
Still, as Hamilton has seen in the last two games, he's going to start getting a lot more attention from the opposition's best defender.
He's going to have games like these. On Saturday, Michigan State held him to 5-for-14 from the field and he barely kept alive his streak of 22 consecutive games in double figures. He scored 11 in an 82-68 victory.
"I didn't get a lot of open looks tonight," Hamilton said. "You have to give them credit. And a lot of times when I was trying to create a shot, I was getting jammed up, that's when I have to give up the ball, because now I know teams are going to attack me. Sometimes it gets a little frustrating when things go the way they did tonight, but I'm going to have to learn to let my teammates step up and take over."
Hamilton had only one point at the break.
He opened the second half with a fading baseline jumper that went in as the shot clock expired to give the Huskies a 39-29 cushion.
When the Minutemen had closed to 47-46, he made a three-pointer.
"That was one of the few open looks I had," Hamilton said. "I got to make those."
After a Lari Ketner tip-in pulled UMass to 52-48, Hamilton was fouled behind the three-point arc and hit all the free throws to give the Huskies a six-point lead.
At halftime, senior point guard and co-captain Ricky Moore said he didn't sense Hamilton was frustrated at not getting free.
"I told him to hang in there and it would come to him," Moore said. "But he seemed all right at that point. And then, down the stretch he hits the biggest shot of the game. He's a great player."
Conn coach Jim Calhoun summed up last night's game with UMass perfectly with
his first comment in the postgame press-conference. "The word 'terrific' doesn't
come to mind, but the word 'lousy' doesn't either," he said.
The Huskies came out on top, 59-54, improving to 7-0 and dropping the Minutemen to 1-4. It was UConn's most physical game of the season as they were forced into what was reminiscent of a street-brawl in front of a sell-out crowd of 9,493 at the Mullins Center in Amherst. It was Uconn's third straight victory in the Mass Mutual game.
The story of the night was the UConn bench, as sophomore guard Albert Mouring played the role of spark plug with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting in 20 minutes.
"Albert Mouring showed up just in time," Calhoun said. "He really made some big, big shots for us tonight."
Mouring's biggest shot of the night came with just under 10 minutes left in the contest. The Minutemen had just pulled to within one, and the noise had just jumped about 50 decibels as the UMass faithful smelled an upset.
Mouring had different ideas, however, as he proceeded to calmly come down the court and hit a 15-footer to silence the crowd and snuff out any momentum. Though UMass pushed throughout the rest of the game, UConn was able to hang on thanks to Mouring's heroics and junior Richard Hamilton's timely return from a two-game slump.
Until there was about seven minutes left in the game, Hamilton had done next to nothing, scoring only one point in the first half and just two more in the first 13 minutes of the second. But he finished with a bang, pouring in eight of UConn's final twelve points in the last seven minutes - including three clutch free-throws with 3:42 left that pushed UConn's lead from 52-48 to 55-48. It was all they would need.
| Video clip: UConn's Kevin Freeman scores with this jump hook over Chris Kirkland.665k AVI Courtesey: ESPN |
"I think our bench is making me happier, but our starters aren't making me too happy," Calhoun said. "[Mouring] obviously did some nice things tonight, and Edmund Saunders was a spark for us in the first half. Souleymane Wane came out off two real bad games and played terrific for us tonight."
Wane (6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks) combined with Jake Voskuhl to make life miserable for Umass center Lari Ketner, a preseason All-American. Ketner led all scorers with 15 points, but shot just 7-for-18 from the floor and pulled down six rebounds in 30 minutes. His lack of aggressiveness on the boards was one of the reasons the Huskies were able to out-rebound UMass 36-27. Ketner fouled out with 1:40 left in the game.
"Everybody knew what Ketner was capable of doing, and it just took him a while to get going," Saunders said. "I'm just happy we came out with a win."
UConn's next game is at Pittsburgh at noon on Saturday. The Panthers dropped a 75-52 decision to St. John's last night in their first Big East game, while the Huskies have yet to face a conference foe.
MHERST, Mass. - Coach Jim Calhoun wasn't sure if his top-ranked
Connecticut men's basketball team was aware that it was about to enter
a hornet's nest. The Huskies found that out quickly, but avoided getting
stung.
Emotions ran high in the 101st meeting between UConn and Massachusetts, and in the end the Huskies held off the Minutemen 59-54 before 9,493 crazed fans at the Mullins Center Wednesday night.
With the shot clock down to three seconds, UMass' Mike Babul fouled Khalid El-Amin fighting for a loose ball with 1:06 left, giving the Huskies a new 35-second clock. Richard Hamilton, who scored 11 points to extend his double-figure scoring streak to 23 games, drove the lane with 57.1 seconds left to put the Huskies ahead 57-52.
Senior point guard Ricky Moore blocked a Monty Mack shot with 42 seconds left to preserve the victory for the Huskies (7-0).
UMass (1-4) outscored UConn 17-10 to start the second half and pulled within 47-46 with 8:49 remaining. But the Huskies held off the feisty Minutemen.
 Khalid El-Amin tries to get away from Charlton Clarke. |
UMass center Lari Ketner, who scored 15 points, fouled out with 1:40 remaining. He had picked up his fourth foul on a reach-in on Moore with 7:01 left.
Moore held UMass guard Mack, who was averaging 21.4 points per game, to 10 points.
The Minutemen came out during introductions with the emotion of a team playing for a national championship, pumping fists in the air, bumping chests, pointing to the sky and doing everything they could to get an already-fired up crowd more into the game.
They used that emotion to build leads of as many as five points during the first 11:11 of the game. But then it backfired on them and just irritating the Huskies.
A Hamilton free throw (his only point of the first half) with 8:49 left tied the game at 19 and was part of a 17-4 run that put the Huskies ahead by 10. UConn forced UMass to call two 20-second timeouts during the run to avoid being called for five-second violations on inbounds plays.
While Massachusetts was forcing shots (shooting 38.5 percent from the field in the first half), UConn continued to excel in the half-court set, somthing that helped them to defeat then-No. 9 Michigan State by 14 Saturday.
The Huskies continue to play unselfish basketball, especially with Hamilton struggling from the field (he was 26-for-66 in his last four games entering the UMass game). They're passing the ball five or more times in the halfcourt offense, finding big men like Edmund Saunders (4 first half points) and Kevin Freeman (nine first half points, and five first half rebounds) for easy baskets down low.
UMass tried to get physical with the Huskies by pushing them around on screens and getting chest to chest on defense early, but it backfired as the Minutemen were called for five fouls in less than first nine minutes.
The Mullins Center crowd was in rare form. Announcements had to be made to the student body to refrain from using whistles, which caused Hamilton to stop playing early in the game, and to refrain from throwing objects on the court. A fan threw a rolled up newspaper onto the court as Hamilton attempted a free throw with 8:49 left in the first half. Hamilton missed the free throw.
UMass, a preseason Top 25 team which had lost its last three games on the road to drop to 1-3, had lost just one non-conference game at the Mullins Center entering Wednesday's game. UMass was also 3-0 against No. 1 ranked teams in its history.
KEY STRETCH: UConn used a 17-4 run midway through the first half to build a 10-point lead. UMass responded later, but it wasn't enough.
KEY PLAYER: Albert Mouring continues to be a spark off the bench, scoring when Hamilton is slumping to provide the Huskies
KEY STATISTIC: UMass had lost just one non-conference game at the Mullins Center prior to Wednesday's game since it was opened in 1993.
OVERALL: A
Huskies were tested mentally and responded to a team filled with emotions.
MHERST - With 1:06
remaining in regulation and the Minutemen trailing No. 1
Connecticut, 55-52, there was a feeling in the sold-out
Mullins Center that the tide might be turning in favor of the
underdog Minutemen.
The UMass defense had forced two shot-clock violations in the last four minutes and appeared to be on the verge of another. But when the ball slipped out of Richard Hamilton's hands, Mike Babul saw opportunity and not the two seconds left on the shot clock, and dove for the loose ball.
Had the clock run out, UMass would have gotten the ball and a chance to tie the game or cut the Husky lead to one. Instead, Babul landed on Khalid El-Amin and was whistled for the foul. UConn regained possession and the Minutemen never got any closer.
"I saw the ball go loose. I was trying to dive for it and he cut me off and I landed right on top of him," Babul said. "It was a tough call. We were both going for the ball."
 The UMass bench can only watch the game slip away. |
"We just didn't have enough bullets in the gun tonight," said UMass coach Bruiser Flint. "It was a good effort. They're a good team."
Lari Ketner led the Minutemen (1-4) with a game-high 15 points and six rebounds. His three assists, three blocks and three steals all were game-highs. Ajmal Basit added 12 points and nine rebounds.
Babul was brilliant defensively, limiting preseason All-American Richard Hamilton to just 11 points on 3-for-11 shooting.
"You can't give that kid an open look or he'll knock it down," Babul said. "The key is, stay in front of him and contest."
Albert Mouring led the Huskies with 13 points off the bench.
"Albert Mouring showed up just in time," said UConn coach Jim Calhoun. "Just as the posse surrounded us, there came Albie around the corner riding that horse. He really made some big big shots for us."
 Ricky Moore tries to stop Monty Mack. |
"I told my team that this is the next step. If you play against the No. 1 team in the country like this, you can play against anybody, but you gotta come with that kind of effort every night," Flint said. "If we don't, we'll lose. If we do, we'll win a lot of basketball games.
"I knew the worst was over after Saturday," Flint continued. "I wanted to win this game. This wasn't a moral victory, but we came real close."
"I congratulated all my guys and said we talked about it and now we went out and did it," said senior guard Charlton Clarke. "We just came up short at the end."
UMass trailed 37-29 at halftime, but emerged from intermission ready to mount a challenge.
After Hamilton opened the half with a basket, the Minutemen kept UConn off the scoreboard for the next 5:27, while UMass scored seven straight to cut the lead to 39-36.
Sparked by Ketner, UMass cut the lead to 45-44 with 10:01 remaining and to 47-46 with 8:54 left. The Minutemen had the ball three times with a chance to take the lead, but Hamilton sank a three-pointer from the corner to keep the Minutemen at bay.
Calhoun had mixed reviews of his own club after the game but praised the Minutemen.
"The word terrific doesn't come to mind, but the word lousy doesn't either," Calhoun said of his squad. "We didn't play very well on offense, but UMass had something to do with that. If Bruiser is looking to get them to play hard, from my vantage point ... UMass played physical and they played hard."
Perhaps buoyed by the crowd, the Minutemen were sharp to start the game.
"I thought the crowd was great," Babul said. "It really got us going. If we could have a crowd like that for every game here, that would do a lot for us."
After Basit put the Minutemen ahead 2-0 with a lay-up, UConn scored the next six points. UMass answered with a 7-0 run and the teams stayed close until late in the half when the Huskies finished strong to lead 37-29 at the break.
The Minutemen battle Boston College at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the annual Commonwealth Classic at the Worcester Centrum.
 Playing hoops was fun again for Ketner and Basit. |
MHERST - It was just one
game, but if Wednesday's performance by the University of
Massachusetts men's basketball team is a sign of things to
come, then the Minutemen have successfully addressed many
of the problems that plagued them in their first four games. Earlier in the week, the Minutemen predicted they'd play harder and more like a team than a collection of individuals, but people were skeptical because they'd heard the talk before. The Minutemen fulfilled their promise, though, and in the process almost beat the No. 1 team in the nation, losing to UConn, 59-54.
The biggest question mark had surrounded center Lari Ketner, whose uninspired play had earned him a seat on the bench at the start of the Marshall game.
Ketner was far from perfect last night, missing too many shots from close range and again getting into foul trouble, but his play gave fans hope.
First, when he did miss shots, he didn't get discouraged and fade, as he's been prone to do at other times. In UMass' surge early in the second half, Ketner was strong on the offensive glass and had a steal in addition to scoring.
He finished with 15 points and six rebounds.
Most encouraging was that Ketner, who can expect to see double-teams for the rest of the year, had an answer for them.
 Ajmal Basit beats Albert Mourning to the hoop. |
"We worked on the double-team the entire week and actually they stopped double-teaming after a while," Flint said. "I thought Lari did a fantastic job. It's good because a lot of people are going to play Lari that way and he did a good job finding Ajmal."
Ketner passed the ball so well out of the double-team that UConn stopped using it, which allowed him to score more.
"In the first two years, we got a ton of turnovers against Lari on big-to-big double-teams," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. "Today when a small guy rotated down, (Monty) Mack was open for a jump shot, or there was a guy in the paint. Bruiser did a great job adjusting to that. If we played them tomorrow, we wouldn't double them again."
The other factor UMass had been missing was defense, previously a trademark component of its game. Wednesday night, however, the Minutemen forced the Huskies into several shot-clock violations and held a team that hadn't scored fewer than 69 points all season to just 59 points.
If the Minutemen maintain that level of play, they can right the ship quickly. Until they face Kansas on Jan. 16, UMass plays nine winnable games, including six at the Mullins Center.
"Don't let the 1-4 fool you," said senior captain Charlton Clarke of the team's record. "We learned that with pride, determination and effort we can go in and compete with everybody. It's not going to stop."
MHERST - As a collegiate player, it was the matchup he had
always dreamed of, but he left school one year too early to take part in it.
But Wednesday night, former University of Massachusetts All-American Marcus Camby was at the Mullins Center to see his former team play his home state's university.
"I always wanted this matchup," Camby said. "I would kill to play in this game tonight."
The trip was Camby's first to the Mullins Center since he declared for the NBA draft following the 1995-96 season.
"It feels good to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time," he said. "It was nice to get that kind of welcome. I've been watching the team and I talk to Bruiser (Flint) about once a week," Camby said.
The Hartford native was able to make the game due to the NBA lockout that appears on the brink of canceling the entire regular season. Camby is finding that situation extra frustrating after he was traded from the Toronto Raptors to the New York Knicks shortly before the lockout.
"It doesn't look good right now," Camby said. "But hopefully something can be banged out and we can get started real soon. I'm eager to get my career started with New York."
Camby, who spoke with Lari Ketner by phone earlier in the week, had some advice for his successor at center.
"Lari has to play like he did last year and not worry about who is here to watch him and who's here to look at him," Camby said. "He needs to settle down and let the game come to him. Once he does that he'll be fine."
***
BRUISER Flint has been given a two-year extension on his four year contract, according to school officials. Flint's pact now will run through the year 2002.
MHERST - Khalid El-Amin
said he heard the fat-boy comments directed at him from the
crowd before, during and after his No. 1 Connecticut team
finally finished off the fanatical UMass Minutemen
Wednesday night, a win he punctuated by flinging the game
ball deep into the crowd.
In reality, the only scale he measures himself by is the scoreboard.
"When the clock says triple zero, that's when you want them to be quiet," he said.
After going into a few frenzies worthy of the great UMass-Temple games of yore, the fans in the end were quiet as their team fell, 59-54. Soon, all that was left was an assortment of folks, the cleaning crew and our old friend Marcus Camby, looking rather collegiate in his blue jeans and sweater, with no NBA season to play.
El-Amin did not have a particularly great game en route to 12 points, but the unlikeliest-named kid from Minneapolis showed again he has the swagger and ability to play this game.
He's got the state of Minnesota tattooed on his arm, almost like a patch from an old Minnesota Twins uniform.
He's a 5-foot-10, 203-pound sophomore, and strong, even if a little extra suet on his derriere gets him called names. But his name alone suggests toughness; it sounds like a famous battle in North Africa during World War II.
He's college basketball's Tony Gwynn. The latter, one of baseball's great hitters, often steps to the plate with a Ruthian gut dangling over his belt. San Diego writers, in a friendly way, call Gwynn Ol' Blubs.
In truth, El-Amin is much leaner than that. When it's gut-check time, UConn coach Jim Calhoun calls on El-Amin.
Despite his fancy watch and giant ring, Calhoun's post-game demeanor made him seem like the cool gym teacher who lets you play floor hockey for the whole year, not the Mr. Sarcasm of days past.
And Mr. Boston was dishing out the credit to UMass.
And so was his team, which makes it all the more painful for UMass. So, UConn center Jake Voskuhl, what did you think of Lari Ketner's Honey-I'm-back-from-the-living-dead night?
"I'm happy for him," Voskuhl said. "He's really going to be a good NBA player. He's got a nice touch and he's big and strong."
Sarcastically, say this along with me: 'Now, there's some bulletin board material.'
For another clip-and-save classic, check out two years ago when Rhode Island's Michael Andersen laid a major dis on Ketner when he claimed the post-Camby team was not the same up front. Ketner responded with a thermonuclear dunk in the Dane's face the next time they met.
 Charlton Clarke launches one. |
The Minutemen were so pumped, they needed a stat crew to keep track of all the air punches they threw.
They needed to be pumped in order to keep up with UConn. Huskies forward Kevin Freeman looks like he's put on about 900 pounds of muscle since the time he led his Longmeadow High team past Amherst Regional in the 1995 western Massachusetts semifinals.
The 6-7, 235-pounder's shining moment came when he somehow inserted himself between Ketner and Ajmal Basit to snare a big defensive board. This rebound at the 2:47 mark with the score 55-50 in UConn's favor may be one of those little things that make a big game like this so great. Fans chew over these details like day-old bagels.
And the crowd was tougher on UConn than week-old bagels.
"At least they didn't throw beer on us like (a crowd) did to Kordell Stewart," Voskuhl joked to a friend.
| Connecticut Huskies (#1) | 59 |
| Massachusetts Minutemen | 54 |
| The MassMutual "U-Game", at the Mullins Center | |
CONNECTICUT (59)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Freeman 30 4-7 1-1 3-7 1 2 9
Hamilton 30 3-11 4-5 2-3 1 2 11
Voskuhl 24 2-4 0-0 1-2 0 3 4
El-amin 31 3-11 5-7 0-1 1 1 12
Ricky Moore 35 0-0 0-0 0-7 4 2 0
Jones 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Mouring 20 6-8 1-3 1-3 0 0 13
Harrison 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Wane 15 3-4 0-1 3-5 2 1 6
Saunders 10 2-3 0-2 1-3 1 1 4
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 23-48 11-19 11-31 10 13 59
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.479, FT-.579. 3-Point Goals:
2-8, .250 (Hamilton 1-3, El-amin 1-3, Mouring
0-2). Team rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 5 (Ricky
Moore 2, Wane 2, Voskuhl). Turnovers: 17
(Hamilton 4, Ricky Moore 3, Saunders 3, Voskuhl
2, El-amin, Freeman). Steals: 7 (Ricky Moore 2,
Saunders 2, El-amin, Hamilton, Voskuhl).
MASSACHUSETTS (54)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Babul 33 2-6 0-0 1-1 2 3 4
Basit 36 5-8 2-2 2-9 2 3 12
Ketner 30 7-18 1-2 4-6 3 5 15
Clarke 37 2-7 2-2 1-4 2 2 7
M Mack 35 3-10 2-2 1-2 1 3 10
Oates 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Depina 10 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Cruz 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Smith 2 1-1 0-0 1-1 1 1 2
Kirkland 11 1-1 0-0 1-2 0 0 2
Blizzard 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Rhymer 2 0-0 2-4 0-0 0 0 2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 21-53 9-12 11-25 11 18 54
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.396, FT-.750. 3-Point Goals:
3-11, .273 (Babul 0-2, Clarke 1-3, M Mack 2-6).
Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 6 (Ketner 3,
Babul 2, M Mack). Turnovers: 14 (Clarke 5, Babul
3, M Mack 3, Ketner 2). Steals: 6 (Ketner 3, M
Mack 2, Babul).
__________________________________
Connecticut 37 22 - 59
Massachusetts 29 25 - 54
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None. A: 9,493. Officials:
Michael Kitts, Tim Higgins, Ted Valentine.
