Armstrong Posts Career High 26 Points To Lead Huskies Over Quinnipiac, 111-75

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HARTFORD, Conn. (December 30, 2005) - Senior Hilton Armstrong (Peekskill, N.Y.) scored a career-high 26 points and added 10 rebounds to record his second-straight double-double as the second-ranked University of Connecticut men’s basketball team posted a 111-75 victory over Quinnipiac on Friday night before a crowd of 16,294 at the Hartford Civic Center.

Armstrong’s 26 points topped his previous career high of 14 – set earlier this year against Arizona in the second round of the Maui Classic. Armstrong posted a double-double in the Huskies’ last action with 11 points and 11 rebounds against Stony Brook on Wednesday night.

Connecticut improves to 11-0 on the season and this year’s UConn team is the first-ever in school history to enter the month of January with an 11-0 mark. UConn was 10-0 entering January play in 1997-98. Quinnipiac falls to 5-5 on the year.

Three other players joined Armstrong in double figure scoring as senior guard Rashad Anderson (Lakeland, Fla.) scored 20 points, marking the ninth-straight game that he has come off the bench to post double-figure scoring. It also marked the third game this season that Anderson reached the 20-point mark.

Joining Armstrong and Anderson in double figures were freshman Marcus Johnson (Los Angeles, Calif.) with 17 and senior Denham Brown (Toronto, Ontario) with 11. Johnson has now scored in double figures in four-straight games after starting his college career with just four points in seven games.

Freshman Craig Austrie (Stamford, Conn.) was spectacular at the point as he dished out a career-high 14 assists, easily passing his previous high of seven, and turned the ball over just three times. The 14 assists was the highest of any Husky player this year and set a UConn freshmen record.

Quinnipiac was led in scoring by John Winchester with 25 points while Chris Wehye had 16 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.

The game was extremely tight in the first half as UConn opened up a five-point lead at 13-8 on a jumper by Anderson 3:05 into the contest. Quinnipiac then went on a 14-3 run to take a six-point advantage (22-16) on a three-pointer by Winchester at the 13:06 mark. UConn tied the game at 25-25 with 9:20 to go on a free throw by Armstrong and it remained close until the final five minutes of the half.

The Bobcats tied the game at 34-34 on a pair of free throws by Winchester with 5:08 to go. UConn then scored 12 of the half’s final 13 points to take a 46-35 halftime lead.  The Huskies scored the half’s last 10 points over the final 3:08.

The Huskies have now scored over 100 points in two of its last three games and in three contests this year.

Freshman Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.) had nine points and five rebounds while senior Ed Nelson (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) chipped in with seven points and seven rebounds.  The Huskies played without second-leading scorer Rudy Gay (Baltimore, Md.), who injured his ankle in Thursday’s practice.

UConn opens BIG EAST play on Tuesday when it travels to Marquette for an 8:00 p.m. game at the Bradley Center. The game will be the BIG EAST debut for Marquette and will be televised by WTIC-TV 61.

Photos courtesy of the Associated Press

POSTGAME QUOTES

UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun
"I want to congratulate Joe DeSantis and Quinnipiac for coming out.  Going back to maybe Maui, I was trying to think of somebody that actually attacked us that much early, and knocked us back….They played with great confidence.  They’re a good basketball team.  Eventually they were overwhelmed by bigger, stronger players.  I thought their opening of the game was sensational." 

"The score was not reflective of the game.  We wore them down, and the foul situation.  I have a lot of respect for them.  Early, they played very good defense.  Eventually they got worn down.  Guys do play much more tentatively when they commit more fouls.  That just happens.  That’s the nature of basketball." 

"Despite the fact that we nitpick over 30 point wins sometimes, we are still a pretty good basketball team."

On first 11 games/Marcus Johnson

"We got better during this period.  I don’t know if we ever peaked, nor do I want us to, but I thought our defense got better and better and better….11 and 0 is a great start for us…. Over this stretch I think this team has shown things.  As we get Rudy back, as we get a healthy Denham back….I’m going to have some questions and some decisions to make, because Marcus Johnson has truly taken full advantage of the situation.  He makes your offense start not at 19, but at 26, where most people don’t shoot the ball….The schedule put before us was a little different than normal.  Nevertheless, we passed every test….We’ll get a much better look when we play people that are as big, strong and talented as we are."

On Hilton taking over

"It’s the first time he’s done that in his entire career.  First time he’s been able to maintain that.  Sometimes he just can’t maintain it.  He did throw a pass to Josh just to let me know that he was still “My Hilton,” but he was really good, My Hilton, today.  He played exceptionally well.  I was really happy for him."

UConn's Hilton Armstrong

On what the team needs to work on

"I think we need to work on playing a full game for 40 minutes hard all out.  We have good long spurts, but we haven’t put it together for 40 minutes"

On Marquette coming up next

"It is our first BIG EAST game so we are going to have to play hard, harder than we did tonight."

On depth of this team

"Coach was just subbing anyone at anytime because we have a lot of depth on the bench."

On Marcus Williams coming back

"I feel really good about that.  Having two great freshman point guards, then having Marcus come back that will make 3 tremendous point guards playing for it is going to be amazing." 

On his game

"The game just came to me, I just relaxed a little bit and let it come to me.  Whenever I was open I made the best of it. Tonight I tried to be solid, not do too much, just make simple plays and simple moves.  It just worked out better. I’ve been hearing from all of the coaches that I go in spurts and stop, so tonight I got it in my head it to just dominate the game so I just tried to do that and it worked out really good."

On the dive into the table

"It was something we do every day in practice.  We go hard, someone is going to fall, we just have to get back up and get back into the play.  Offense or defense.  It comes from practicing with Coach Calhoun." 

On Quinnipiac

"Coach told us yesterday that Quinnipiac was a good team and that they were going to come at us, they like to shoot 3’s they fast break.  We knew it was going to happen but they still caught us by surprise a little bit."

UConn's Marcus Johnson

On his defense

"You would have to ask Coach about that.  He likes us to play defense and I guess you can say I do that…everyone plays defense on this team though."

On Hilton Armstrong’s night

"I wasn’t surprised at all.  He and I talked before the game and I said hey tonight you have to have 20…at least…and he went out there and did it.  Honestly I’ve seen Hilton go out in practice every day and dominate against Josh and the other guys. So I don’t see why he can’t go out there every game and I think he will.  He has games where he doesn’t score as much, but his dominance still shows."

UConn's Rashad Anderson

On his shooting over the last two games

"I know I have to get in the gym.  I can hear coach breathing down my neck.  Last game he was like, ‘Rashad how can you go 1 for 7.  I said, “Coach, I had a stomach flu, blame it on that." 

On Craig Austrie’s play

"No, I’m not surprised.  In the summertime when he used to come and play with us, I knew he was a great point guard.  What he’s done, I’m not surprised."

On providing instant offense tonight

"It felt good.  That’s what I do.  That’s what Coach tells me to do, come in and score points.  We talk all the time about starting, but I told Coach, ‘whatever the team needs.’  I don’t mind coming off the bench, that doesn’t affect me at all."

On getting back to 100 percent

"I am 100%.  I don’t make excuses about whether I’m 100% or 2%.  When you step between those lines, nobody cares what percent you’re at.  You’re on the floor so you’re a 100%.  So, I’m 100%."

UConn's Craig Austrie

On getting 14 assists tonight (freshmen record)

"Guys were in the right spot.  My job is just to hit them and find them in the right spot.  It’s easy to play with guys when they put the ball in the basket.  They helped me out a great deal in getting those 14 assists."

On playing against teams that try and push the ball

"I feel like that’s our game.  Once guys try and get up in us, try to push the ball against us, that’s really to our advantage.  We like that kind of game, so we counteract it with same game."

On Marcus Johnson’s back-to-back dunks in the beginning of the second half

"I felt like once he did that, it took the life out of them.  You could see it in their faces that they weren’t the same team that came out with that energy in the begging of the game.  We’re capable of plays like that all the time.  We’re just always waiting for it to happen and once it happens we capitalize on it."

Quinnipiac Head Coach Joe DeSantis

"We gave them a good battle for 17 minutes.  I promised my team that when I watch the tape tomorrow I won’t look at the scoreboard, I’ll look at how we played.  I thought that we played hard.  I just think they’re so good, so well coached.  They just made one of those phenomenal runs on us, and the show was over.  I think we’re a pretty good team and I think we’re going to do well from here on in."

On first half performance

"Understanding that we are who we are, and that we’re a little on the small side, sometimes you don’t want to expect too much.  Sometimes I do, and then I become a maniac in the huddle.  It’s a game with the kids.  You tell them before you can win.  You tell them that we had four great days of practice and let’s play that way, and we did.  I just don’t think that I can take four days of practice and work on playing another way, a way that I’m not going to use the rest of the season….It’s hard to win when you play a team the way we play.  Call me stupid, but I think it’s going to help us in the long run."