Bryant Basketball Falls to UConn 90-65 Thursday

November 11, 2004

HARTFORD, CONN – Josh Boone scored 20 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked five shots to lead seventh-ranked Connecticut to a 90-65 win over Bryant before 15,542 at the Civic Center Thursday night.

After hitting 15 three-pointers against Maryland last week, Bryant shot just 7 of 29 from three-point range and were out-rebounded by the Huskies 62-33 in the game. Bryant junior guard John Williams had 21 points and three assists while Cullen McCarthy scored 19 points including 5 of 12 from three-point range.

The Bulldogs battled UConn early, falling behind 7-2 but pulling even with the Huskies 9-9 as Mike Williams scored inside the lane over Ed Nelson. From there, UConn would go on a 12-2 run to lead 19-11 after a Boone bucket inside.

UConn, which shot 49.4 percent from the field for the game, led 51-34 at the half, but Bryant played much better in the second half, out-scoring the defending national champions 22-21 through the first 15 minutes, but an 8-0 run late put the game away as Bryant was able to close to within 72-56 with under eight minutes to play.

John Fogarty had 10 points on 5 of 7 shooting, all in the first half.

UConn led by as much as 25 (72-47) with ten minutes remaining but the Bulldogs would not go quietly as Nathaniel Sudlow hit a pair of free throws and following a missed layup by Denham Brown, Sudlow was fouled in the lane by Marcus Williams and converted both free throws to cut the lead down to 16 at 72-56 with 7:03 left.

However, that would be as close as the Bulldogs would get as Boone converted an inside bucket on an offensive rebound and pushed the lead back to 80-56 and the Huskies never looked back.

The Bulldogs will open the regular season next week at the University of D.C. tournament. Bryant will face North Carolina Central on Friday and Belmont Abbey on Saturday.

The home opener for the Bulldogs will be Nov. 23 against American International at the Chace Athletic Center (7:30 p.m.).