Jim Calhoun must be feeling pretty good about himself.
And with good reason.
His Uconn Huskies just knocked off the #7 ranked team in the country in convincing fashion 68-63 in front of the home crowd. The win by Conneticut snapped a 29 home game winning streak and a 13 game winning streak this season by the Hoosiers (Last loss Feb 11, 2006 at Indiana).
In a team effort, all of the Huskies starters scored in double figures. Indiana, on the other hand, had only 3 of its starting 5 scoring 10 pts or more. Craig Austrie led Huskies starters in scoring with 15, while Armon Bassett had 18 for Indiana.
Freshman hype-machine Eric Gordon never was in rhythm going 5-16 (FG) from the field and finshing with 14 points.
The game was close at the end of the first half with Connecticut leading 29-24.
But in the second Half, the Hoosiers inability to exploit mismatches with the slower Connecticut guards combined with poor shot clock management, an Achilles heel for the Hoosiers all game long.
The Hoosiers made several comebacks towards victory starting with a 5-2 run capped off by a Armon Bassett 3 pointer with 2:15 remaining to cut it to 59-55.
But with 4 missed free throws and 2 missed FG attempts on their next 4 possessions, all hope looked lost. Connecticut guard Craig Austrie (Who was a 93.3% FT Shooter coming into the today's game) struggled in the closing moments only nailing 2-4 from the line out to make the score 61-55. On the Hoosiers next possesion Armon Bassett hit a 3 pointer to close the gap to 61-58 with 57 sceonds left.
The Hoosiers immedialety fouled Austrie on the inbound and he regained his composure, making 3-4 (FT) to seal the game for the Huskies.
A big loss for the Hoosiers, but an even bigger win for the UConn Huskies, as they continue to put together a solid tournament resume.
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