Panthers Regain Momentum
STORRS, Conn. – Jamie Dixon and his team won’t tell you this, but they needed Saturday’s game. They got it, and the way they got it might be as important as the fact that they pulled out a 76-66 win in one of the toughest places to play and on a night where the blizzard conditions outside were the talk of New England.
“We know it’s a long year, and you want to win every game,” Dixon said. “Fact is, we’re 13-3 and we’ve done a lot of good things, and I think sometimes you have setbacks and you see how you respond. We were down 17 in this situation, and our guys just kept battling and believing in each other. I think that’s a good sign of a team that believes in each other.”
Sure, the Panthers are 13-3, but they lost those three games in a five-game stretch, and all were ones they should have won – home losses to Bucknell of the Patriot League and Georgetown, and last Tuesday’s 65-62 loss at St. John’s that has put the Johnnies back on the map. The Georgetown loss doesn’t look as bad now in light of the Hoyas continuing to surprise people, but losing three out of five is never good.
For that matter, the Panthers looked like they could be headed to another defeat on Saturday as Connecticut. In the first half, Connecticut used hot shooting by junior Rashad Anderson (16 of his 19 points in the half) and taking good care of the ball to build the aforementioned 17-point lead on two occasions and lead by 11 at the half. Husky head coach Jim Calhoun was called for a technical foul that seemed to fire his team up, as they followed that up with nine unanswered points as part of a 17-2 run that broke a tie and gave them the lead for the remainder of the half.
The Panthers didn’t really get going right away in the second half, either, as the Huskies would push the lead back up to 15, and they led 53-41 before the Panthers made their big run. They scored 11 unanswered points as part of a 15-1 run to take the lead, but not for long. Shortly after the Huskies tied it, the Panthers took the lead for good on a bucket by Aaron Gray, who turned his ankle during the game but still gave them seven points and three rebounds in 12 minutes. In the final 5:21, Chevon Troutman scored 12 points, capping off a 25-point second half and a 29-point, 12-rebound effort.
Troutman was the story in the second half, as he basically took over the game in both of the Panthers’ crucial runs. Every time you looked, he was making a key play at either end of the floor. Troutman knows a thing or two about putting the ball in the basket, at least when he gets it; two years ago, he would have easily led the nation in field goal percentage when he made just under 72% of his field goal attempts – but he didn’t take enough shots, as he fell short of the required five field goals made per game to qualify (he made 4.35 per game). He hasn’t received much of the attention during the team’s success the past three seasons, but he’s certainly been a key component of it and that’s not lost on Dixon.
“I’ve always talked about how valuable he is, and I’ve been saying that for years and the things he does, and sometimes people look at numbers, or the new name, or sometimes things just carry,” he said of the senior forward. “He’s been so consistent and around, he becomes the old story rather than the new story.”
Known as a quiet leader, Troutman let his game do plenty of talking on Saturday, and at a time when the Panthers really needed it. After the loss at St. John’s, the team held a three-hour meeting to discuss the state of the team. They had just lost their third game out of five, and to a team most projected to finish at the bottom of the Big East as they try to rebuild after the disaster of last season. Troutman certainly got something out of the meeting if his play is any indication.
“I feel like it put our team back into perspective, as in, we got to work for everything we got,” he said. “We can’t just take plays off and still win.”
That was what stood out in his mind as the reason for the team’s recent struggles. For most of the season the Panthers have built up early leads and then won, as Saturday was the fifth time they have trailed at the half this season. In each of their three losses, they trailed at halftime, so a trend seemed to emerge, but this time they bucked the trend.
“We always dig ourselves a hole, and we always come back and we always lose by a few points,” Troutman said. “We just haven’t been getting the big plays down the stretch. We’ve been taking plays off, and I think tonight is one of those nights that we gave it all to not take a play off down the stretch.”
The Panthers have had plenty of success the last few seasons, which Troutman also seemed to allude to. Only Duke has a better won-loss record over the last four seasons, and the current Panther senior class won its 101st game on Saturday night, putting them just six wins away from tying for the winningest class in the school’s history. They certainly didn’t get this far – including three straight appearances in the Big East Tournament championship – by just showing up to the arena.
Troutman wasn’t the only hero, though he was easily the most notable. Carl Krauser battled foul trouble all night, but had 15 points and eight assists when it was all said and done. Freshman Ronald Ramon gave them a lift off the bench in the first half, hitting two three-pointers, and he quietly played more minutes (35) than any other Panther. There is also the aforementioned Gray, a sophomore center who lost 30 pounds during the offseason and looks much improved. It was all part of a win that bodes well if the Panthers keep playing as they did in this game.
“The guys just did an unbelievable job getting it done, I really don’t know who to start with,” Dixon said. “But they battled and believed in each other and to come back and do the things that they did. We are proud of them and we will use this to get better.”
