UConn Tops East Carolina 85-67
Shonn Miller led four Huskies in double-figures with 16 points as UConn(17-6/7-3 AAC) picked up a 85-67 home win at Gampel Pavilion on Sunday over East Carolina.
Jalen Adams had 14 while Sterling Gibbs and Daniel Hamilton both scored 12 in the victory despite 21 game high points from the Pirates' Prince Williams. B.J. Tyson was held to 11 points and Kentrell Barkley had 9 for East Carolina(10-13/3-8 AAC)
UConn hit 55.6 percent from the floor while holding ECU to just 37 percent shooting.
ECU’s B.J. Tyson and Prince Williams traded three pointers early with Sterling Gibbs and Cornell transfer Shonn Miller whose pair of early dunks got UConn out to a 13-8 lead in the first seven minutes of the game.
Eight Prince Williams points in the early going including a trey from the corner allowed the Pirates to stay in a two-point 17-15 UConn contest at the twelve minute mark.
But three Jalen Adams drives later, the Huskies were suddenly up nine before Tyson and Kentrell Barkley converted for the Pirates to trim the lead to four at 26-22.
Then N.C. State transfer Rodney Purvis’ drive in the lane along with a Shonn Miller spin move in the paint and a Kentan Facey dunk put the Huskies up 32-25 with 3:28 to go in the first period.
Sterling Gibbs’ tossed in a three-pointer off a dish from Jalen Adams to give UConn a ten point 41-31 lead with a minute to go in the first period. Facey connected from the stripe for the Huskies before a dead ball technical foul on Nolan on an elbow to ECU's Mike Zangari on the rebound first put Kentrell Barkley on the free throw line for ECU where he made one of two. Then Prince Williams went to the stripe where he hit one of two on the technical foul in a 42-33 Connecticut ballgame at intermission.
Prince Williams led all scorers with 14 for ECU at intermission while Adams and Miller both had 12 at halftime for the Huskies.
A pair of early second half buckets from 6-10 ECU post man Kanu Aja along with three scores from Prince Williams including a trey from the top of the key helped counter two Connecticut dunks from Amida Brimah in a six-point 50-44 ballgame.
But a UConn jumper from Adams, a Hamilton trey and two Purvis drives extended the Huskies’ lead to thirteen at 57-44 with 13:37 to play.
Mike Zangari scored a pair of buckets for ECU, but then missed several three-point shot attempts that helped fuel a 13-2 UConn run keyed by a pair of treys from Gibbs. That suddenly stretched the Huskie lead to twenty-one at 70-49 midway into the second half.
Lance Tejada scored twice on a three-pointer and a drive for the Pirates to cut the Huskies' lead to fifteen, but Daniel Hamilton’s trey and a Miller basket pushed the UConn lead back to twenty at the five minute mark.
ECU's Caleb White trimmed the lead to fifteen before Nolan and Purvis pushed the UConn cushion back to nineteen at 83-64 with a minute to go. Then Enoch’s dunk put the exclamation point on it down the stretch.