Jeff Adrien gets hounded by three Indiana players in the first half of the Huskies second straight loss.

Throwing Away The Freebies

Huskies' Foul Shooting Does Them In

By: Dan Olender

Posted: 1/22/07

HARTFORD - For the third consecutive season, the Huskies battled with Indiana. But unlike the last two games, it was the Hoosiers that found a way to break through and come away with a victory.

In front of 16,294 people at the Hartford Civic Center Saturday, Indiana came in and defeated a resilient UConn team, 77-73.

"It wasn't like it was one of those games where it's lop-sided shooting," said head coach Jim Calhoun. "We both shot [48] percent but we couldn't make a foul shot and we made some ill-advised plays."

Free throws would become the difference in the game, as Indiana (14-4) went 20-for-21 from the line, and the Huskies (13-5) shot just 60 percent on 17-of-28 shooting from the line.

"They are called free-throws for a reason," said forward Marcus Johnson who was 0-for-1 from the line. "We've had our slumps throughout games, not making free-throws, that's just [something] we have to correct."

Once Indiana took a 71-70 lead with 1:05 remaining, the Huskies began fouling and putting the Hoosiers on the line. Indiana was sent to the line six times in the final minute, and converted all six opportunities.

"Unfortunately they made foul shots, and we didn't," Calhoun said.

The two teams went back and forth for the final 10 minutes of the game. From 9:17 remaining until there were 34 seconds left, Indiana had a 4-point lead for 20 seconds, but beyond that, neither team had a lead greater than two points.

"If anyone questions our effort, I would 101 percent disagree," Calhoun said. "Our effort was good enough to beat an awful lot of basketball teams. It wasn't good enough to beat this team, yet I feel we should have."

The Huskies out-rebounded Indiana 38-22, and had 19 offensive rebounds. UConn also scored 46 points in the paint to Indiana's 20, and the Huskies had 21 second chance points, while Indiana had zero.

"I still think we have confidence," Calhoun said. "I just don't think we have execution and the ability to finish."

Thirty seconds after Roderick Wilmont, who had a game-high 23 points, gave Indiana a 71-70 lead, Doug Wiggins was called for a double-dribble. After the game, Calhoun said he looked at the tape and he felt the wrong call was made. Wiggins also objected with the referee's decision.

"I disagree with that call," Wiggins said. "It was a pause, so I guess [the referee] thought it was a double-dribble."

Wiggins started in place of A.J. Price who played limited minutes due to an eye injury. In his first career start, Wiggins scored eight points and dished out five assists.

"I played alright," Wiggins said. "I feel I didn't let coach down."

"I think he played terrific," Calhoun said. "The pace of the game was different with him there. That's the fastest we've played all year."

UConn scored 11 fastbreak points and were really able to run throughout the game.

"The teams that have tried to take [the fastbreak] away from us have been successful," Calhoun said. "They didn't take away our fastbreak."

The Huskies got off to a rough start in the first half, as the Hoosiers jumped out to a 16-4 lead after four minutes of play. Indiana's Armon Bassett connected on three 3-pointers from the right wing in that span to help put the Huskies in a whole.

"They came out, jumped on us, executed especially well and withstood a comeback from our team," Calhoun said.

As D.J. White, who finished the game with 21 points, continued to score and pose problems for the Huskies, the team started creeping back into the game. After White pushed the Indiana lead to 28-16, the Huskies went on an 8-0 run to bring the game to within four.

With 3:16 remaining in the first, Stanley Robinson tied the score at 29, with a lay-up. Thirty seconds later, Robinson hit a 3 to give UConn their first lead of the afternoon at 32-31.

"They went on that burst, the last 10 minutes of that first half, halftime couldn't get here fast enough for me," said Indiana head coach Kelvin Sampson. "We had to get to halftime and regroup."

Robinson, who was in the starting lineup for the third-straight game, scored 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting and pulled down nine rebounds. And while the team struggled to make free-throws, Robinson was a perfect 6-for-6 from the line.

The Hoosiers surged ahead in the last two minutes of the first, but Doug Wiggins hit a 3 with two seconds before the half ended to tie the score at 39 and slow any Indiana momentum.

"I knew I was going to take it," Wiggins said. "Because my best shot is a pull-up three."