Spring Break
Huskies looking for payback
Kevin Duffy
Issue date: 1/21/09 Section: Sports
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Now a senior captain, Adrien readily admits that the Wildcats are a team he circles on his calendar every year.
"We owe them," Adrien said. "They've beaten us the last two years, they always play us tough. We've got to come out and play even tougher."
Adrien and the No. 3-ranked Huskies (16-1, 5-1 Big East) will get their chance for redemption tonight when they welcome No. 21 Villanova (14-3, 2-2) to the XL Center at 7 p.m. (ESPN).
In order to reverse its fortune against the conference rival, UConn will need to do what it hasn't in the past two seasons - get the ball out of Scottie Reynolds' hands.
Reynolds, a 6-foot-1 junior guard, hung 41 points on the Huskies at Gampel Pavilion two years ago in a 89-75 'Nova victory and scored a team-high 18 points when the Wildcats upended UConn, 67-65, a year ago.
"Scottie Reynolds isn't real fast, he doesn't jump particularly well," said UConn assistant coach George Blaney. "But he uses his body better than anyone in college basketball. Our main focus is just staying in front of him."
Senior guard A.J. Price, who defended Reynolds in his 41-point outburst, doesn't want to let the past bother him.
"That game was two years ago," Price said. "We're a different team now and so are they."
And that is the scary part. Through Reynolds' first two collegiate seasons, Villanova basically went as far as he could carry them. This year, however, the Wildcats have a few more weapons at their disposal. Sophomore guards Corey Stokes and Corey Fisher have come into their own after disappointing freshman campaigns. Fisher is averaging 10 points and 2.9 assists per game and the 6-foot-5 Stokes is scoring 9.9 points per contest while converting 44.7 percent of his 3-point attempts.
Senior forward Dante Cunningham, who averaged just 2.2 points per game and shot 39 percent from the free throw line as a freshman, has suddenly developed into the Wildcats leading scorer. The 6-foot-8, 230-pound Cunningham is averaging 17.4 points per game, which ranks eighth in the Big East, to go along with 7.4 rebounds per game. He is shooting 54 percent from the field and has improved his free throw percentage to 72 percent.
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