Cougars stay close early,
but fall to No. 12 Huskies, 72-60
By Jake McKim
Daily Cougar Staff
The Cougar men's basketball team was supposed
to go into Storrs, Conn. Thursday night and get blown out by the No. 12-ranked
Connecticut Huskies.
Apparently they didn't get the message.
The relentless, short-handed Cougars scratched
and pawed the quicker, better-shooting Huskies all night but came up short,
72-60. UH fell to 2-4 on the season.
The Cougars started the game looking like
deer in headlights, committing two turnovers on their first two possessions
and falling behind 8-2 early on. The Cougars went on a mini run and actually
took the lead, 19-16 with 6:45 remaining in the first half.
The lead was short-lived, as the steady
Huskies regained it on the strength of a 10-2 run to take a 26-21 lead.
It didn't help the Cougars that star forward George Williams racked up
three early fouls, forcing him to take a seat on the bench. Though the
Cougars stayed strong, they went in to the half down 35-30.
Freshman center
Alton Ford grabs a rebound in a 61-59 loss to Louisiana State on Tuesday.
Ford was booed by Huskies fans in a 72-60 loss at Connecticut on Thursday.
Pin Lim/
The Daily Cougar
The Cougars had two options in the second
half: Come out sluggish and get laughed out of the Huskies' Gampel Pavilion,
or fight back and make a game out of it.
They chose the latter.
A strong 8-0 run at the beginning of the
second half looked encouraging to Cougar fans, but the solid play of the
Huskies kept the Cougars in check.
UConn forward Johnnie Selvie, last season's
Junior College Player of the Year, had his way with the Cougar defense,
scoring 21 points and consistently slashing through the normally tough
UH interior defense. The Huskies marched to a 56-47 lead with a little
more than eight minutes to play. UH could never recover.
The team refused to give up, maintaining
a single-digit deficit until UConn forward Edmund Saunders hit a three
pointer with one second remaining on the shot clock that seemed to break
the Cougars' backs.
UH freshman forward Alton Ford finished
with 13 points. Sophomore forward George Williams netted 15 points and
10 boards.
After a 16-day layoff for finals, the Cougars
will next take on Southern Methodist in Dallas on Dec. 17.
