Thabeet Dominates, Huskies Pound Boilermakers 72-60

There was good and bad news that concerned the Connecticut Huskies.  First the bad: the team is being investigated for alleged NCAA recruting violations, according to a Yahoo! Sports report.  The good news?  The team didn’t let that issue affect their game on Thursday against the Purdue Boilermakers at Glendale, AZ.  While Connecticut went through a somewhat sluggish first half, they came roaring back to dismantle Purdue 72-60 in the NCAA West Regional semifinals.

Although the Huskies led by only 30-25 at halftime, they turned to Hasheem Thabeet and he would not disappoint as he scored their first eight points of the second half then blocked a shot which set up an A.J. Price layup - part of an 8-0 run that gave Connecticut a 42-31 advantage with 13:37 left to go.  But Purdue would respond as they returned the favor with a 7-0 spurt and pulled to within four; however, a Thabeet dunk pushed the Huskies’ lead back to 57-45 with 6:28 remaining and the Boilermakers just couldn’t keep up.

Connecticut’s high scorer was Craig Austrie with 17 points (including three 3-pointers), 2 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal while Thabeet and Price added 15 each - with Thabeet grabbing 15 rebounds along with a steal and 4 blocks while Price grabbed 4 rebounds, dished out 7 assists along with 2 steals.

Purdue was led by Robbie Hummel with 17 points (including three treys) with 5 rebounds, an assist and 3 steals while JaJuan Johnson added 13 with 7 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and a block.  Connecticut will now face the winner of the Missouri-Memphis matchup on Saturday.