University of Connecticut Athletics
Anderson Leads Huskies to BIG EAST Final
3/14/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
NEW YORK, NY (March 14) -- The University of Connecticut men's basketball team advanced to the championship game of the 2003 Con Agra Foods BIG EAST Tournament with a 80-67 win over Syracuse in a semifinal game at Madison Square Garden on Friday night.
UConn will face Pittsburgh in the championship final on Saturday at 8 p.m. as the Panthers defeated Boston College, 61-48, in Friday's other semifinal. The final will be a match-up of last year's championship game as the Huskies won a double overtime thriller. The Huskies will be making their seventh appearance in the BIG EAST final in the last nine years.
UConn improves to 21-8 on the season with the win, while the loss snaps the Orangemen's eight game winning streak and drops them to 24-5. Syracuse's last defeat was to UConn on February 10 - 75-61.
The Huskies were led by freshman guard Rashad Anderson (Lakeland, FL) who poured in 21 points and sophomore center Emeka Okafor (Houston, TX) with 12 points and nine rebounds. Sophomore guard Ben Gordon (Mt. Vernon, NY) had a career high nine rebounds to go along with his 12 points. Freshman Marcus White (Chicago, IL) gave UConn a huge lift off the bench with nine points and a career-high tying 14 boards including eight on the offensive glass.
Syracuse was led by freshman Carmelo Anthony with 29 points while Hakim Warrick had 14.
UConn started the game quickly and led by ten points, 16-6, six-and-a half minutes into the game. The Huskies opened up a 16 point lead at 26-10 with 7:59 left to go in the half.
Syracuse then went on a 12-0 run, including five points from Anthony, to make it 26-22 Huskies with 3:42 to play.
Connecticut scored the last five points of the first half to extend a 31-27 lead to 36-27 at intermission. UConn limited Syracuse to a 21.4% shooting performance in the first half at 9-for-42.
UConn opened the second half with a three point basket by Anderson as the Huskies maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half, shooting 50% from the field in the stanza, 15-for-30.
