Huskies Open Regular Season With
Win at Pepperdine

Box score [.pdf]
Box score [.html]

MALIBU, Calif. (November 18, 2005)— Sophomore Rudy Gay (Baltimore, Md.) and junior Josh Boone (Mt. Airy, Md.) each registered a double-double to help the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team to a 75-56 win over Pepperdine University Friday night at Firestone Fieldhouse. The game was the season opener for both squads.

With the win, UConn improves to 16-4 in the season openers under head coach Jim Calhoun and captures a win in the first ever true road game to open a season under Coach Calhoun.

Boone finished with a team high 18 points and added 12 rebounds, while Gay scored 15 points, grabbed ten boards and added five blocked shots.

Senior Rashad Anderson (Lakeland, Fla.) finished the game with nine points and now has 1,005 for his career, becoming the 38th player in school history to surpass the 1,000-point barrier.

Pepperdine had cut UConn’s lead to 54-47 with just over seven minutes remaining, but the Huskies responded with a 15-3 burst that gave them a 69-50 edge with 3:33 to play.

UConn led 34-24 at the half on the strength of a tenacious defense that held Pepperdine to 26.8% shooting from the field. The Huskies only shot 36.7% themselves and were out-rebounded 29-22 in the first stanza, but used a balanced attack to hold the halftime edge. Gay, Anderson and senior Denham Brown each had seven first half points.

The Huskies broke open a 14-14 game with a 12-2 burst capped by a senior Rashad Anderson bucket that pushed him over the 1,000-point mark for his career. Anderson gave the Huskies a 26-16 lead with 8:04 to play in the first half , the first double digit lead of the contest, with his milestone-making basket. UConn had taken its first lead of the game at the 12-minute mark of the first half when sophomore Rudy Gay completed a conventional three-point play for his first points of the game and putting the Huskies in front 17-14.

The Huskies return to action Monday, November 21 when they open play in the 2005 EA Sports Maui Invitational. UConn will face Arkansas Monday at 11:30 p.m. eastern time in a game to be televised nationally by espn2.