Connecticut Back on Track

Connecticut broke out of its February funk and got a boost from a surprising source, 6-foot-10 reserve sophomore Ajou Deng, for a 59-50 victory over Seton Hall on Monday night at East Rutherford, N.J.

The 18th-ranked Huskies, 18-6 overall and 7-4 in the Big East, had lost two of their last three games. The 23rd-ranked Pirates (18-5, 10-3) had won five consecutive games and moved into the national rankings earlier in the day for the first time since 1993.

Seton Hall made only 18 of 53 shots (38%) and was outrebounded, 44-30.

Deng had been expected to help fill the void left by player of the year Richard Hamilton but had struggled until scoring in double figures each of the last two games.

He came up big in the second half when the Huskies took control. His jump shot with 11:17 left gave the Huskies the lead for good at 40-39 and started a 15-2 run in which he also hit a hook shot on the baseline and blocked two shots.

Deng finished with six points, five rebounds and the two blocks in 21 minutes.

“Tonight we stuck with our defense. I thought we had some fire in our eyes,” Huskie Coach Jim Calhoun said. “I thought we’d score more points. I was happy we didn’t get frustrated when we didn’t. If we play defense like this we can play with anybody in the country.”

Connecticut senior forward Kevin Freeman said, “Losing to Notre Dame was tough and we wanted to just come out and play hard, make a statement that we’re still one of the best teams in the Big East.

“Deng gave us that extra guy coming off the bench and it really helped. Coach talked to me about playing with more emotion and fire. I tried to bring it out tonight. I wanted to do whatever it would take to win.”

Deng is a native of Senegal who also lived in England and Egypt before attending St. Thomas More Prep in Connecticut.

“That’s been three, four weeks in coming,” Calhoun said of Deng’s game. “He’s responding to the coaching and that’s not always easy at Connecticut.”

Deng said, “We needed a win so I was just trying to do anything to help. I’m playing harder, more aggressively than I was a month ago. I tried to make plays at both ends of the court. Right now I’m hungry. I wasn’t a month go.”

Albert Mouring had 17 points for the Huskies, while Freeman had 13 points and Khalid El-Amin 11.

No. 13 Tulsa 75, Rice 33--Eric Coley scored 18 points and had eight steals as the Golden Hurricane (23-2, 8-1) caused 35 turnovers to beat the Owls (4-17, 0-9) in a Western Athletic Conference game at Tulsa, Okla.

Coley’s 263rd career steal, leading to a dunk with 8 1/2 minutes to play, broke Tim Hardaway’s conference record for steals. Hardaway set the record for Texas El-Paso from 1986-89.

No. 20 Oklahoma 62, Nebraska 54--J.R. Raymond made a clutch three-point shot in the final minute as the Sooners (20-4, 8-3) notched a Big 12 victory at Lincoln, Neb.

The Sooners won despite their second-lowest point total of the season and an off night by leading scorer Eduardo Najera, who had only 10 points.

But Najera had 13 rebounds and the Sooners had a 42-36 advantage in rebounding over the Cornhuskers (10-14, 3-8).

The 62 points were the Sooners’ fewest since a 72-57 loss to Cincinnati on Dec. 22. Oklahoma ended a two-game losing streak against Nebraska and won for the sixth time in seven games.

Oklahoma had a 6:39 scoring drought over the end of the first half and beginning of the second as Nebraska rallied to get back in the game after trailing by as much as 15. The Cornhuskers closed the first half with a 9-0 run to cut the Oklahoma lead to 32-26 at halftime, then opened the second half with four consecutive points.

WOMEN

No. 14 Duke 69, Wake Forest 38--A 15-6 run at the close of the first half sent the Blue Devins (20-4, 9-3) to a rout of the Demon Deacons (6-17, 2-10) in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Winston-Salem, N.C.