Huskies Put Distractions Behind

Connecticut 72, Purdue 60

GLENDALE, Ariz., March 26 -- When Connecticut took the court Thursday night, the players for a few hours managed to step away from reporters' questions about potential recruiting allegations and shift the focus to a sport they had played with such mastery the past week.

But the top-seeded Huskies (30-4) did not look like the team that had beaten inferior teams by an average of 41 points in two NCAA tournament victories. Connecticut squandered an early double-digit lead against a balanced and capable Purdue team, only to return to form in the second half and emerge with a 72-60 win in a West Region semifinal. Connecticut will play third-seeded Missouri at 4:40 p.m. in Saturday's final.

The game featured an assortment of air balls and missed layups, and neither team displayed its finest performance. The difference was the play of Connecticut center Hasheem Thabeet, whose all-around effort in the second half kept the fifth-seeded Boilermakers for the most part at a comfortable distance.

"Hasheem just took the game over," Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said of Thabeet, who finished with 15 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks.

For the past two days, U-Conn. players and coaches have been asked questions about a Yahoo.com report detailing possible recruiting violations. The report is just the latest dose of adversity for a Huskies team that lost one of its best all-around players, Jerome Dyson, to a season-ending knee injury last month and played its first-round NCAA tournament game without the ailing Calhoun.

"It was great just to be back on the court and just play basketball," said U-Conn. guard A.J. Price, who finished with 15 points. "That is what we do. That is what we do best."

Purdue was beginning to surge this month after enduring its share of adversity. Three players battled the flu in February. Defensive standout Chris Kramer missed three Big Ten games because of an injury. Most importantly, forward Robbie Hummel was slowed by a stress fracture in his lower back much of the season.

Hummel returned to form recently, earning Big Ten tournament most outstanding player honors, and carried the Boilermakers in the first half Thursday. The sophomore scored 15 first-half points, accounting for all but 10 of Purdue's points in the half. But Hummel scored just two points, making just 1 of 5 shots from the field, in the second half.

"We stayed on him," Thabeet said. "We had to find a way to stop him. When we play great defense, that gets our offense going."

Purdue (27-10) closed to within three points early in the second half, but Connecticut soon regained a double-digit lead because of Thabeet. On one end of the floor, Purdue's Nemanja Calasan gave a ball fake one direction, only to come back the other way and have his shot blocked by Thabeet. That started a fast break the other way that ended with Price converting a layup. Moments later, U-Conn.'s Jeff Adrien scored to put the Huskies up 11.

"We tried to put them away four, five or six times," Price said. "And they kept coming back."

Connecticut never lost the lead after taking an 8-0 lead. Price fed forward Stanley Robinson for Connecticut's first two baskets, the second of which was an alley-oop dunk.

The Huskies suffocated Purdue early on with their defense. Guard Craig Austrie peeled away the ball from Purdue freshman Lewis Jackson and drove to the basket for a layup. Later in the half, Hummel appeared to have a path to the basket, but Thabeet got in his way and swatted the ball out of bounds.

Although Hummel missed his first two shots, the shooting by the sophomore kept the Boilermakers within a reasonable distance in the first half. In less than three minutes, Hummel made three jump shots, two of them three-pointers, to narrow the deficit to five points.

He later added a 17-foot jumper and a three-pointer from the corner to slice the U-Conn. lead to three points and force Calhoun to call a timeout.

U-Conn. did not play its best game, but the Huskies will return to the West Region final, where they have emerged the last two times (1999 and 2004) they reached the Final Four.

"I told them, 'All we are playing for is to play Saturday,' " Calhoun said. "I couldn't be happier with our kids."