ORLANDO, Fla. – The UConn Huskies rolled over the Memphis Tigers 72-58 to win the American Athletic Conference Tournament and receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament on Sunday afternoon.
“I’ve been fortunate to be a part of two National Championships in the last five years, and this is real special to win this conference tournament,” UConn head coach Kevin Ollie said. “We have been maligned a lot out there and in people’s minds about not doing well in the conference and things like that. But our conference is very, very difficult.
“There’s a lot of travel in our conference. So, we’re making no excuses, but our conference is tough. And to come out here is very gratifying to the players, and it was very gratifying to our true fans, too.”
Huskies’ sophomore swingman Daniel Hamilton, named the tournament’s most outstanding player, finished the game with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists.
“We just continued to build on that momentum from Cincinnati to Temple to Memphis, three great teams in our conference and we’re just continuing to build that momentum and it all paid off in the end,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton’s standout performance in the tournament was stunted in the first half as he struggled to find his shot with the Tigers defense smothering him. However, with the game tied at 6, the Tigers’ lockdown defense gave way and the Huskies proceeded to rattle off an 11-0 run in just three minutes to shoot out in front.
“They came out early and made a lot of tough shots like Coach said,” Memphis senior Ricky Tarrant Jr said. “So it was just all about energy and effort. So I give credit to UConn, they are a great team and its just the ball didn’t land our way today.”
Hamilton was UConn’s main source of production in the tournament, but on Sunday it was more of a team effort as five players scored in the double digits for the Huskies.
When it rained it poured for Memphis with starting guards Tarrant Jr and Trashon Burrell forced to take a seat halfway through the first half after getting into foul trouble.
“I thought that what hurt us that first half was when Ricky got in foul trouble,” Memphis head coach Josh Pastner said. “That really hurt us, especially without Avery Woodson in there due to injury. That did not allow us to have another shooter on the floor just to open things up in the middle, and so that hurt.”
The Tigers 2-for-14 cold spell was halted after a much-needed jolt from freshman Dedric Lawson as he drove through the Huskies for back-to-back baskets.
Lawson scored 11 of his team’s 19 points in the first half, trying to will Memphis to get over the early deficit and come away with the win. The freshman forward finished the game with 21 points and 11 rebounds to get his seventeenth double-double of the season.
“First half, we fouled them and put them on the line, and they made all their free throws and we pushed the lead for them. Then when they made shots, it opened up the game for them.,” Lawson said.
The Huskies’ Shonn Miller scored the team’s first 5 points in the second half as UConn extended their 12-point halftime lead to 16. Unfortunately for the Huskies, the well went dry and the team went on a nearly seven minute scoring drought which allowed Memphis to get back into the game.
“Well, we’ve had leads before and the team that we’re playing will make a run,” Miller said. “We just wanted to stay mentally and physically tough and know that we needed a key stop at whatever point in time in the game, and we got those and we got the win.”
Memphis’ second half comeback effort was supplemented by the Huskies landing in some foul trouble of their own. UConn forwards Phillip Nolan, Steven Enoch and Amida Brimah each had four fouls with 15:33 remaining in the second half.
The Huskies were forced to go with a smaller lineup which gave Memphis the definitive advantage on the boards. The Tigers cut their deficit down to 6-points with a 13-1 run, but senior leader Shaq Goodwin picked up his fourth foul with 10:38 remaining in the game and the team almost instantly reverted to their first half form.
With Goodwin out, UConn pounced on the Tigers and stretched their lead back out to 17 and they never looked back. The Huskies finished the game shooting 45 percent from the field and knocked down eight of their 24 shots from beyond the arc.
“Our pillar in our program is recovery,” Ollie said. “You’re going to have to be able to self-correct and I think that those guys are really getting that right now.”
With the win, UConn was named a No. 9 seed in the NCAA tournament where they will take on the No.8 seed Colorado Buffalo in the first round on Thursday. The winner of that game will likely take on the No.1-overall seed Kansas Jayhawks.
