CT trounced MI in Wednesday’s night cap at the Battle 4 Atlantis, walking away with a 74-60 victory. UConn outscored the Wolverines 22-7 over the final eight minutes of the first half and went to the locker room with a 14 point half time lead. We had a game-plan discipline out there the whole night. “We had contributions from every area”.
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“Duncan and this guy (Irvin) were 1-for-12 from three again, I don’t think you’ll see that in anybody’s lifetime”, Beilein said.
“We took some bad shots in that span”, LeVert said.
Guard Caris LeVert led MI (2-2) with 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field. 3-3, LeVert 2-4, Dawkins 2-6, Robinson 1-6, Wagner 0-1, Abdur-Rahkman 0-1, Wilson 0-2, Irvin 0-6), UConn 8-20 (Cassell Jr. Junior guard Braxton Ogbueze, who began his career at Florida where he played on an Elite Eight team, is the lone returning starter and had 15 points in Wednesday’s 83-70 first-round loss to Syracuse, a game the 49ers trailed 19-3 at the start and 50-27 at halftime before rallying to close to within nine points late in the game. They also had few answers for Connecticut’s frontcourt. LeVert completed a three-point play to get MI within 11 with under 5 minutes left. But Zak Irvin missed a corner 3-pointer, Purvis grabbed the rebound and – after a timeout – Hamilton buried a huge 3-pointer with 1:09 remaining to pretty uch seal the deal.
MI jumped out to a quick first-half lead, but UConn responded with a 19-4 spurt to take control.
Michigan: The Wolverines shot just 21 percent (6 for 25) from the field in the first half. The Wolverines hit three 3-pointers early and took a 12-5 lead.
It will be a reunion of sorts Thursday when the Huskies face Syracuse in the semifinals. UConn-Syracuse. The great Big East rivalry that yielded so many classic battles, perhaps most notably the six-overtime classic won by the Orange in the 2009 Big East tournament.
Beilein said he isn’t stressing too much about the early deficiencies his team is showing through their first four games.
AXS TV isn’t easy to find in a lot of homes, and for Huskies fans, it may cause a little bit of frustration as they try to flip past football games to watch some UConn basketball on Thanksgiving.
However, Beilein has not lost hope in his squad, especially since it is only November, per Snyder: “I trust these guys but I wish our learning curve was faster”. “I got into it. I wanted to go to the rim, but I saw the shot clock was going down, so I just stepped up and hit an open three”. But for some reason with this team it edges along, and edges along.
LeVert scored seven straight points for the Wolverines to keep them within 11 points with less than five minutes left.
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MI will play Charlotte at 9:30 pm. on Thursday in the second day of the tournament.
