Feb. 22—UConn has its star back. Now it just has to keep the rest of its cast from star-gazing too much.
James Bouknight was spectacular in the early stages of UConn’s men’s basketball game against No. 10 Villanova Saturday afternoon at Finneran Pavilion.
But as he tired, and as he tried to recover from a fall that seemed to aggravate his injured elbow, the rest of the Huskies spent a little too much time merely waiting for Bouknight to erupt again.
That led the Huskies to a woeful second-half offensive performance and a 68-60 loss to the Big East’s best.
Bouknight, in his second game back following a six-week absence with an elbow injury, had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Huskies. He was maestro early on offense but struggled to carry a tune late in the game.
“That was a tough ask for James, to come and put together a virtuoso performance with one game in 45 days and five practices,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said.
Bouknight made six of his first seven shots but then missed nine of his final 10 attempts. That one made field goal was a 3-pointer in the final minute when the outcome had long been decided.
He fell early and briefly seemed to re-injure his left elbow, but Bouknight’s biggest issue in the second half was simply that he was out of gas.
“He got a little nicked up. They were pretty physical with him and he’s a hard-playing guy. He’s just bruised up, banged up. I think more of his issue today was fatigue, conditioning,” Hurley said. “As he got tired, he probably tried to do a little bit too much.”
That’s when his fellow Huskies should have picked up the slack, but they too were off the mark. UConn hit just 29 percent of its shots in the second half.
UConn’s top secondary scorers, guard R.J. Cole and forward Tyrese Martin, were a combined 5-for-17 from the field. Center Isaiah Whaley was 1-for-5.
“We have to play offense. We have to get the ball moving better. The ball just can’t end up in James’ hands just trying to bail us out,” Hurley said. “As a team we have to have a better approach. Obviously we have to get James the ball in a lot of different places but I don’t think the ball moved anywhere near as well as we needed to.”
Bouknight’s spill after hitting a shot in the lane, on which no foul was called — much to the chagrin of Hurley and the UConn bench — was not too serious, the guard insisted.
He had just hit a shot to tie the score at 12 but left seconds later and appeared to be in serious pain as UConn trainer James Doran examined him.
“I just fell on my elbow. I felt it and it felt fine, so I went back in. I wasn’t worried at all,” Bouknight said.
Bouknight re-entered the fray just two minutes later, and for a time resumed his dominance at the offensive end. He had 14 of UConn’s first 21 points.
Although he couldn’t keep up the torrid scoring pace, Bouknight says the elbow wasn’t a factor. He did admit to being exhausted, but says he still could have performed better.
“Yeah, definitely but that’s not an excuse. I played through it so I’m not going to use that as an excuse,” Bouknight said.
Bouknight doesn’t owe anyone an apology, his coach believes. There were plenty of onlookers to the UConn offense who could have contributed more.
“He doesn’t have to apologize for us being really choppy offensively,” Hurley said.
Hurley probably could have given his star more of a rest in the second half but it’s a Catch-22. Perhaps UConn’s only chance to beat Villanova was with Bouknight going off for 30-something points, so why would a coach take him out?
In truth, Villanova’s defense, mainly its matchup 2-3 zone, had something to do with Bouknight’s later struggles.
“They were just really, really good defensively. Made far less mistakes than we did,” Hurley said. “They made all the critical plays in the last eight minutes of the game.”
The Huskies have just four games remaining in the regular season. It’s not much time to get the offense in gear as a whole and get Bouknight able to play some 35 minutes with ease.
“We have to get James’ conditioning and his cardio back to an elite level,” Hurley said. “And then we have to put that chemistry together with the group quickly.”
As in try to keep them from simply staring at the star.
Neill Ostrout is the sports editor of the Journal Inquirer. He has been covering the UConn men’s basketball team for 26 years.
Neill covers UConn men’s basketball and UConn football teams, and he keeps a finger on the pulse of Connecticut sports. For live game updates, and more insight into UConn athletics, player transfers, and team changes, follow Neill on Twitter: @NeillOstrout, Facebook: JINeillO, and Instagram: @NeillOstrout.
