The improbable season continues as offensive fireworks from Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lamb sparked UCONN's eighth consecutive win, this time over San Diego State 74-67. The win procured the Huskies a spot in the elite eight for the 10th time in their history. Walker was unstoppable as he scored 36 points on 12-25 shooting from the field including 4-8 from three point land. Lamb continued his red hot shooting from the floor as he hit 7-9 field goal attempts including three clutch treys for 24 points.
Both teams looked tight for the first four minutes of the game as Walker missed his first three shots, although he was getting good looks. At this point the Aztecs Kahwi Leonard picked up this second personal foul and Coach Steve Fischer sat him out for 7 minutes. When big man Malcolm Thomas also went to the bench with two fouls the Huskies had a great opportunity which they squandered with coninued cold shooting, including Walker's fourth straight miss. At 10:31 of the first half Shabazz Napier hit Walker with a beautiful back door pass and Walker layed it in to get off the schneid- he never looked back from there. Leonard came back in for the Aztecs but as walker started draining shots from all over the court the Huskies pulled away for a seven point half time lead. Of significance was that Oriakhi and Smith were controlling the defensive boards and consistently limiting the Aztecs to one shot. In addition, yet another team was letting Walker prove that he cannot be guarded one on one in a man defense.
San Diego State started the second half strongly and led 55-51 with about eight minutes left to play. At that point Walker just took the game over and scored 12 straight Husky points. Coming down the stretch he and Lamb scored the last 24 Husky points between them as UCONN pulled away for an emphatic 74-67 win.
The Huskies will take on a fast improving Arizona team who blew out the Region's #1 seed in the other West region sweet sixteen contest. Although Walker and Lamb were sensational, I still remained concerned that the Huskies aren't getting a bit more scoring from their big men and better balance on offense. On the other hand we might just be seeing a great, great college player carrying his team on his back and that is just how it will be.
"You heard it here first"
Steve
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Welcome to the Kemba Show!!
Turning point was when the savvy and intelligent Kemba outsmarted Franklin!
The bigs will need to contain Derrick in the next round.
Can't wait. I advance scouted Arizona, as I saw them lose to UCLA just a few weeks ago. They are VERY beatable for us, although they have some great players.
I'm on a plane home from london - didn't watch the game, only highlights, but totally psyched.
Post a Comment