University of Connecticut Athletics
Adrien Keys Senior Night Victory
2/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Game Stats [] []
STORRS, Conn. (February 28, 2009) – Senior Jeff Adrien (Brookline, Mass.), playing his final collegiate game in Storrs, scored a season-high 25 points to lead second-ranked Connecticut to a hard-fought 72-65 BIG EAST Conference victory over Notre Dame Saturday afternoon before a sellout crowd of 10,167 at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.
The Huskies, who are poised to re-take the number one ranking on Monday, improve to 27-2 on the season and are 15-2 in the conference. The Fighting Irish drop to 16-12, 7-9 in league play.
The Huskies were nursing a 66-65 lead with one minute to play after a jumper by Luke Harangody. Hasheem Thabeet (Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania) was fouled by Kyle McAlarney with 41 seconds to play, but was unable to shoot the free throws. Senior Craig Austrie (Stamford, Conn.) came off of the bench and made both free throws and added another from the charity stripe 19 seconds later to put the Huskies ahead, 69-65. Adrien followed with one of two from the line and A.J. Price (Amityville, N.Y.) made two with two seconds remaining to ice the game.
Adrien, coming off a game where he failed to make a field goal, dominated the lane all contest. He made 11-of-15 from the field and added nine rebounds. Adrien made his first seven shots from the field in reaching the 20-point mark for the first time since the Fairfield game on December 26. His 11 made field goals represent a career-high.
Thabeet was his usual solid contributor during the contest. He registered his 23rd career double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. He also added eight blocked shots in the game. It was the 14th time this season that Thabeet blocked at least five shots in a game.
Freshman Kemba Walker (Bronx, N.Y.) had one his best games of the year offensively with eight points, six rebounds and a game-high six assists with no turnovers in 31 solid minutes of game action. Price finished with 12 points and four assists.
The game was preceded by Senior Night festivities that honored Huskies who were playing their final home game at Connecticut. Adrien, Price and Austrie were joined by walk-ons Johnnie Bird (Fort Bragg, N.C.), John Lindner (Cheshire, Conn.) and Jim Veronick (Durham, Conn.) in being feted by the sellout crowd in their last home game.
The win gave Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun 801 career victories, just two behind Eddie Sutton for sixth all-time on the Division I head coaching win list.
The first half saw the Huskies open up various leads of up to eight points before the Irish rallied behind some solid three-point shooting to get within two, at 32-30 at intermission. The Huskies out-shot Notre Dame in the first half (52 percent to 32 percent), but Notre Dame made six from long-range to stay close.
Notre Dame took their first lead since early in the contest on a three-pointer by Randy Ayers with 18:09 to play. The Huskies responded to take the lead by as much as six (at 49-43) before taking the lead for good on a free throw by Adrien with 6:11 remaining.
The Huskies will conclude the 2008-2009 regular season on Saturday, March 7 when they venture to the Petersen Events Center to play Pittsburgh. Tip-off is set for noon and the game will be nationally-televised by CBS.
Post Game Quotes
Connecticut Head Coach Jim Calhoun
I can’t say it was the smoothest win we’ve had in recent times.
Mike certainly had his team more than well-prepared. That game, a basket here, a three-pointer there, whatever the case may be. We were fortunate to win….That’s a good team. They have good players. And to see them fighting now is somewhat the price of playing in this league, that you have to play well every night.
I do think, emotionally, the team really was into the whole senior thing, in the locker room. And we’ve been through this before. Most times, we get our stuff back, our zip back. And for whatever reason, we really didn’t get our zip back today. We were able to scratch out. Jeff had a couple of enormous rebounds, a couple of blocked shots by Hasheem, a great play by Kemba – just an absolutely great play to not get tied up, to get the time out, to get the ball inbounds.
We were able to scratch out a win, and that’s what you have to do sometimes when you get caught not playing as well as you think you could. Notre Dame, it’s probably the best defensively I’ve seen them play. I thought they did a good job of crowding us down.
I’m very glad that we have a tough-minded group of kids, that have grown up over these past three years, particularly, to be getting to being a terrific basketball team that’s handled itself playing well, handled itself playing not so well, and still made it to an awfully good record.
On Thabeet/Harangody
We were so erratic within the game, except for Hasheem’s defense, which I think was the most constant. Luke Harangody is just a terrific, terrific player, and to be able to somewhat neutralize him was an incredible accomplishment. The first time he tried to play against Hasheem, he took him inside and Hasheem took care of that. He took him outside and beat him pretty good. Today, I thought Hasheem handled his feet at 20 feet exceptionally well and did a tremendous job.
Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey
Well, it was a heck of college game. We gave ourselves every opportunity to win in tough place against a heck of a team. I’m proud of our group. Connecticut made some big, big plays and some big buckets.
On Adrien
I thought Adrien was really good on Senior Day, and I kind of felt he would be. I know he didn’t play well against Marquette.
But we gave ourselves a chance. For us, we need to get out of here and get some rest, because Monday is huge for us. That’s why I called that last time out, to tell them “Great job. Let’s think about Villanova on Monday.
I thought Connecticut made big plays at key times.
We got stops at times, but it was hard for us to get two in a row the last six or seven minutes. And that hurts you.
When we did foul, they made enough of their free throws to put pressure on us.
For us, I look more of it on the offensive end. We had some really clean looks there that start some runs for us. Us, being a little bit better offensively, and being able to score a little bit more efficiently – that’s easier said than done against them, because they take away the middle with the big fella. We could have used a couple more of those looks to go down. We have to make those to steal that one today.
On Thabeet/Harangody
It’s just really hard to get into the offensive rhythm that you’re accustomed to playing, no matter who you are, with Thabeet in the middle. You’ve heard that all year. It just changes things for us. We can’t go inside to Harangody consistently. I thought he did a great job being a conveyer of the ball, and handling the ball out on the perimeter and screening and cutting and driving it every now and then. That was about as efficient as he could be, because we couldn’t get low post stuff. They really change how you play offensively.
Connecticut Player Quotes
On Senior Day
It was very emotional. It was really tough. All of the memories were going through my head. It goes by so quick. It was a great feeling. This was a wonderful day.
When things are going bad, you can always clear your head with basketball.
Words can’t really define what I’m going through. The whole atmosphere here today, the students, the fans were just wonderful.
AJ Price
On Senior Day
The ceremony was very special. But once the ball goes in the air, you try to forget about it. You have to forget about it and focus on basketball.
Notre Dame played us so tough we really couldn’t appreciate [the day] until we all came out with two seconds left. Those last two seconds were really the only time I realized that that would be my last time playing at Gampel
How will he be remembered?
As of right now, I think I should be remembered as one of the best point guards who’ve come through here. My on-court play, speaks for itself. I think I’ve shown the maturity that everybody wanted to see from me as a person.
It was a great game today. The seniors couldn’t play as emotional as they wanted to. A game like this we just wanted to get a win. If you go out there and believe in all the hype it’s not easy to stay focused and win the game.
Were you really too hurt to take the foul shots at the end?
My neck snapped pretty bad. I couldn’t move for, like, 10 seconds. I tried to toughen-up as fast as I could and go shoot it. The refs told me if you’re not feeling good, you don’t have to go over there (to shoot the free throws). I was not feeling good at all but I tried to muscle-up and go shoot the free throws. And then I figured I couldn’t so I just took a break.
On defending against Harangody
The team defense today was tremendous…I got help a lot of times. We’re just happy we were able to stop them from scoring as much as they wanted to.
Was there a sign to Hasheem for him to stay down so you could shoot the free throws?
No sign. No, no sign. I honestly didn’t know what happened to Hasheem. But I saw him down on the ground and I knew my number was going to be called and I just wanted to knock down the free throws.
Was it important to be able to contribute on Senior Night?
Anything I could do to help the team, especially on Senior Night, was big.
On coming through whenever called on?
Usually they call me Papelbon, the closer, and all that. I feel like at the end of the game I want to step up.
How did you have the presence of mind to call the timeout at the end when you got the rebound on the ground?
Well, first of all, I got the rebound and I kind of tweaked my knee so I had to call timeout. I didn’t want to stay in the game because my knee was hurting, so that was the reason I called timeout.
On pushing the ball today
Pushing the ball opens up the floor for AJ to get some shots, and Craig and Jeff to get some shots.
