HARTFORD – When freshman Greg Nero cut to the basket past UConn forward Jeff Adrien, received a pass from Marty O’Sullivan `07 and scored his tenth point of the game, it seemed that Fairfield had a chance to compete with the Huskies.
The Stags were on a 8-0 run and were trailing by only five points, after being down by 13 points a minute and a half earlier.
Nero had led the Stags throughout the first half, helping them battle back from a 10-2 deficit by scoring eight of their first ten points to bring the score to 14-10 with 13 minutes remaining in the half.
But UConn when all was said and done, the 21st ranked Huskies (3-0) proved to be too much for the Stags (0-5), pulling away in the second half en route to a 74-49 win on the second day of the Hispanic College Fund Classic at the Hartford Civic Center.
The Huskies were able to expand their lead to 41-33 as the first half wound down, but it still looked like Fairfield was alive.
The tide changed quickly as the Huskies came out strong and fast in the second half, going on a 12-4 run over the first five minutes.
The Stags, who shot 41 percent from the floor in the first half, shot just 19 percent in the second half and scored only 16 points after the intermission.
“They really turned up the heat in the second half,” said Fairfield Head Coach Ed Cooley. “I thought their ball pressure really gave our team some trouble and made us pick up our pace a little bit, moreso than we want. We were never able to regroup.”
Nero, who had two fouls in the first half, picked up his third and fourth fouls of the game over that stretch and was forced to the bench.
He scored a team-high 12 points all in the first half, but spent most of the second half on the bench and was held scoreless in the minutes he did play.
Cooley said that he felt the fouls on Nero and the rest of the team in the beginning of the second half had a major impact on the Huskies run.
“I thought the whistle changed the complexion of the game,” Cooley said, “There were some ticky tack fouls, we were not holding and grabbing, I thought there were some judgement calls.”
Nero and O’Sullivan had the difficult task of covering the Huskies 7-foot-3 center Hasheem Thabeet, who scored seven points in the second half and grabbed two offensive rebounds, both of which he tipped back into the hoop. Thabeet also had a game-high nine blocks.
“He is a lot bigger, on defense and offense he changed the game, he made it hard to get to the line and was a real stopper,” said Fairfield forward Marty O’Sullivan, who had 10, seven rebounds and a team-high three assists in 26 minutes.
Senior guard Mike Van Schaick said that he felt the strength of the Huskies forced Fairfield to play a different game than it wanted to.
“It was difficult to play them, because they are more physical than anyone that we play,” he said. “They realized that we scored 33 points on them in the first half.”
Fairfield receieved strong play at times from freshman forward Anthony Johnson, who had eight points for the Stags, including a thunderous alley-oop dunk off a pass from O’Sullivan.
But, Johnson also made many freshman mistakes, including a sequence in which he missed a dunk, got his own rebound, missed a layup and then committed a foul.
The Stags have now lost five straight games to open the season, including both played in the Hispanic College Fund Classic.
But UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun, who had plenty of praise for the Stags after the game, said Fairfield has played a schedule that he would have been afraid to play even with his star-studded lineup.
“I think they’re pretty good. I wouldn’t go to St. Joe’s and play St. Joe’s. With the team I have right now, I wouldn’t go there,” Calhoun said. “I like this Fairfield team; they are going to be just fine.
“They are a good team. Their record says no, but I say yes.”
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