HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)—Connecticut freshman center Hasheem Thabeet said he was worried about getting into foul trouble early Saturday against Fairfield.
But after the Stag’s Greg Nero scored several easy buckets on the 7-foot-3 freshman and Anthony Johnson slammed home an ally-oop over his head, UConn coach Jim Calhoun pulled his big man from the game and suggested he stop being so tentative.
When Thabeet came back in, he was a different player, scoring 12 points, grabbing seven rebounds and blocking nine shots to help UConn (3-0) blow out Fairfield (0-5), 74-49, in the Hispanic College Fund Classic.
“You gotta come back and prove to them, they can’t do that any time they want,” he said. “That happened because I was just sleeping at the beginning of the game.”
The Huskies, who led just 34-30 with 2:41 left in the first half, held Fairfield to 19 points the rest of the way.
Jeff Adrien scored 17 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and had four blocks of his own. Teams are going to find in hard to score around the basket against UConn’s defense, he said.
“It’s really sometimes impenetrable,” he said. “I feel like I can block as many shots (as Hasheem), but nobody is coming at me. They are all coming at him, and he’s 7-3, so I don’t know what they are thinking.”
It was Adrien’s third double-double in three games this season. Guard A.J. Price added 12 points and four assists for the Huskies.
The Huskies jumped out to an early 10-2 lead, but had trouble with Fairfield’s 2-3 zone early in the first half.
They led 41-33 at intermission, but were never really challenged after Nero picked up his fourth foul with 16:44 left in the game.
That happened when Thabeet blocked Nero’s shot on one end of the floor, then slammed over him at the other. Thabeet made the free throw, giving Connecticut a 52-35 lead. He added a tip-in on the Huskies next possession.
“They started out the second half, I think, with six or seven offensive rebounds and that really turned the tide, already being down by seven or eight points,” said Fairfield coach Ed Cooley. “They went from seven or eight to 13 or 14 really quickly. We were never able to regroup.”
Freshman guard Jerome Dyson, who has averaged 18 points in his first two games for the Huskies, sat out all but one minute before the break with two fouls. He finished the game with just four points.
Nero finished with 12 points, all in the first half. Marty O’Sullivan had 10 points and seven rebounds for the Stags, who have lost 14 consecutive games to ranked opponents, and 17 in a row to the Huskies.
UConn will finish the round-robin tournament Sunday against Mississippi (4-0), which beat Central Arkansas Saturday 75-61.
“The biggest thing is we face a team physically that kind of matches up to us, with a little more experience,” said UConn coach Jim Calhoun. “It will be a good test for us.”
