By ZACH SMART
Special Contributor to ZAGSBLOG.com
STORRS, Conn.—William & Mary entered Gampel Pavilion with a slew of 3-point snipers and quickly shed any fear of the No. 12 Huskies.
The Tribe, which lived and died beyond the arc all night, hit six 3-pointers before the Huskies could hit one.
That’s before William & Mary ran into a buzz saw in Jerome Dyson, who scored a game-high 27 points and dished eight assists to lead the Huskies to a 75-66 victory before an announced 9,719.
“Jerome played awful and good at the same time tonight,” said UConn coach Jim Calhoun.
On Dyson, Tribe coach Tony Shaver was singing a different tune.
“He just sort of took the game over at Times,” said Shaver.
The 6-foot-3 Dyson guard missed last year’s run to the Final Four, sidelined by a torn-up knee (after locking knees with Kristof Ongenaet during a win against Syracuse on Feb. 11, 2009).
The Tribe trailed by just six points at halftime and pulled to within four points, 39-35, at the start of the second half.
Dyson, who starred as a frosh but missed significant chunks of his sophomore and junior seasons due to a team suspension and the aforementioned injury, orchestrated a personal 10-2 surge midway through the second half.
He nailed a long trey that gave the Huskies a 50-41 cushion. On the ensuing possession, Dyson carved up the defense and whipped an alley pass to Stanley “Sticks” Robinson (27 points), who flew in for the flush. Dyson then got open to bury a set three—he literally took a picture of the rim before releasing—giving the Huskies’ a 55-41 bulge.
Following a Tribe bucket, Dyson penetrated the teeth of the defense for a layin he kissed off the glass, cushioning the Huskies’ lead, 57-43, with just fewer than 12 minutes remaining.
Another deep three from Schneider sliced UConn’s lead to 63-58 with 4:35 remaining, but the Huskies’ kept their distance by running off five straight points.
Those five critical, unanswered points were capped off by a Robinson dunk off his own missed free throw.
“They outplayed us,” said Robinson of the Tribe. “It’s kind of shocking at times when we should actually be winning and rebounding. At first (while leading 19-7), we felt like we were running away with it. They ended up coming back, they were shooting more threes, they made more shots. They did what they had to do, but we got the win.”
Alex Oriahki, a highly-touted freshman from the Tilton School (N.H.) had a solid debut, hitting all four of his shots and finishing two points shy of a double-double. The wide-bodied five-man swallowed 10 rebounds, three offensive, in 36 minutes.
“Alex is going to always be Alex,” said Robinson of his teammate. “He’s a great player. He came in, he sparked it for us in the beginning. He only had I think like one bucket in the second half, but he can always improve. We can always improve.”
Oriahki is likely to play major minutes early on, due to UConn carrying a thin front court without 6-11 freshmen Ater Majok (ineligible until December).
“It was just a bad game for us,” said Robinson, who’s stepping into a more prominent role this season after being too much of a feast-or-famine presence (or non-presence) in previous years.
“We did get the win, but I’d just say they outplayed us,” said Robinson.
“I’d like to congratulate William & Mary for outplaying us,” said Calhoun.
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