Spring Break
#1's not the loneliest number
Men will move to top of polls after exorcising Friars, 94-61
Marc Gauthier
Issue date: 2/2/09 Section: Sports
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Would A.J. Price get his 1,000th point? If UConn beats the Friars, would the Huskies become the No. 1 team in the country? But perhaps the biggest story going into Saturday afternoon was would the Huskies finally beat Providence, a team they had not beaten since 2006.
But as the game got underway, it didn't matter.
None of it mattered.
Not this year.
Not on this day.
When the horn buzzed after 40 minutes of basketball, Price skipped off the court, a smile on his face, in front of about 10,000 Gampel Pavilion fans simply chanting, "Number One. Number One."
The Huskies beat Providence 94-61. Price scored his 1,000th point. And come Monday, the Huskies will most likely be the No. 1 team in the country.
"We were focused tonight and for the first time this season we had about six or seven guys on the same page, clicking on the same cylinder," Price said. "I think we showed what can happen when we play like that."
In the first half, UConn came out with a lot of energy; going after lose balls, making aggressive moves to the basket and playing lock-down defense.
But whatever UConn did, Providence did too, and at some points they were doing it better.
The major UConn highlight in the first half came when Price scored his 1000th point on his second three-pointer of the game with eight minutes to play.
With two minutes to play in the first half, Price missed a jumpshot from the elbow, Providence's Marshon Brooks came down with the rebound, handed the ball to Weyinmi Efejuku who dished the ball off to teammate Randall Hanke for an easy layup. The score was tied at 34-34.
In the final two minutes of the half, the Huskies made some offensive rebounds and put in two baskets to take the lead 38-34 going into halftime.
During halftime, coach Jim Calhoun said he didn't like the way certain aspects of the game were going. More specifically, he didn't like how Hasheem Thabeet was playing.
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