No. 18 UCONN 74, MI 60

Sterling Gibbs has been so good for UConn so far this season.

The University of MI men’s basketball team fell, 74-60, to the CT Huskies (No. 18 AP, No. 21 USA Today), 74-60, on Wednesday night (Nov. 25) inside the Imperial Arena at Atlantis Resort.

While his players were pleased with the win, coach Kevin Ollie already had his attention on the next game, per David Borges of the New Haven Register: “We’ve got a short turnaround”.

“We had to game plan this one out there – the whole night, ” he said.

The Huskies (4-0), after falling behind 12-5 and giving up a couple of offensive rebounds on one MI possession.

The Wolverines, their offense smothered and their defense scorched, made a run very late.

“We’ve got a short turnaround”, said Ollie.

Considering the decision again, Beilein added, “I thought we could withstand it. Obviously we didn’t do well with it”.

“I remember being in high school when they went into (six) overtimes (in 2009)”, he said.

Hamilton 7-12 1-1 16, Miller 3-7 7-8 13, Brimah 2-5 0-0 4, Gibbs 4-7 0-1 11, Purvis 6-11 0-2 13, Nolan 0-0 0-0 0, Adams 0-6 2-2 2, Cassell Jr.

As for CT, Rodney Purvis reflected on his team’s first-half run, per Dom Amore of the Hartford Courant: “It’s a great feeling, everybody’s involved…” Coming out of a timeout, Hamilton got free and drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

“My mom let me stay up and watch that game”, he said, with a chuckle. “And take whatever they give him”.

“It was a rhythm shot”, Hamilton said, of his three-pointer that all but sealed the game. “I’ll just be ready for the next shot”. MI managed to finally cut the lead to single digits with 3:14 to play in the second half, but the late comeback effort was too little too late.

MI trailed by as many as 19 points in the second half, but the Wolverines did not go down without a fight. Levert, Michigan’s senior star, had been quiet, but he heated up with five quick points to cut the Huskies’ advantage to 41-29.

After trailing for most of the half, MI closed to 63-55 on a basket by LeVert with less than four minutes to play.

Hamilton, continuing his best all-around floor game of the season, was threatening a triple double as the Huskies maintained their lead. TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, AXS TVABOUT CHARLOTTE (1-3): Price inherits a team that returns one starter from a squad that finished 14-18 a year ago and was picked by Conference United States of America coaches to finish 11th this season. Syracuse jumped out to a 19-3 lead, upped it to 50-27 at the half and coasted past Charlotte, 83-70, to set up the possibility of a Syracuse-UConn semifinal, the game all the UConn fans who made the trip wanted to see.

The Wolverines flirted with a comeback, but Hamilton drilled the dagger from three-point range with less than 90 seconds remaining to put the Huskies up by 11.