February 17, 2001

Virginia Tech played hard and played well in spurts, but it wasn't enough to overcome Connecticut as the Huskies used a big first-half run to beat the Hokies 61-46 in front of 6,211 fans at Cassell Coliseum.

The loss marked Tech's sixth straight and ninth in the past 10 games. More importantly, the loss left Tech with eight losses at home this season and assured the Hokies of their first losing record at Cassell Coliseum since the building was built.

"It hasn't sunk in yet," Tech forward Joe Hamilton said. "But it's going to be sad to think that we're a part of that."

The Hokies (8-16, 2-10 in the BIG EAST) started out well enough against UConn (17-8, 6-6), a team on the NCAA Tournament's proverbial bubble and a team which, like Tech, had been winless in BIG EAST road games this season. The Hokies jumped out to a 10-5 lead with 14:31 left in the first half.

But things disintegrated after that.

Taking advantage of some poor shooting and poor ball-handling by the Hokies, UConn went on a 22-1 run to take a 27-11 lead with 5:36 to go in the half. The Huskies scored on seven straight possessions during the run - with senior guard Albert Mouring hitting four shots, including two 3-pointers - while Tech missed 11 straight shots.

Tech ended up shooting just 26.5 percent from the floor in the first half. And as a result, the Hokies found themselves down 36-22 at halftime.

"We couldn't hit any shots and that affected our defense," said Tech guard Brian Chase, who led the Hokies with 15 points. "They got some easy baskets and we just never overcame that."

"That was the key," Tech head coach Ricky Stokes said of the run. "And I thought we had some good shots. We executed our offense like we wanted. We just weren't able to make any of those shots."

Tech tried to climb back into in the second half. UConn scored the first basket of the second half, but the Hokies then went on a 9-0 run and cut the lead to seven on a short jumper by Bryant Matthews with 16:12 left in the game.

But UConn - a team on the NCAA bubble - answered. Taliek Brown hit the second of two free throws on the Huskies next possession. Then after a turnover by Matthews, Mouring canned a 3-pointer to make the score 42-31. UConn ended up going on a 10-0 and Tech never came closer than 15 the rest of the game.

That basket marked the last for Mouring, but the Huskies didn't need him. Mouring - who torched Tech for a career-high 31 points in the two teams' earlier meeting - finished with a game-high 18 points on a perfect of 7-of-7 from the floor, including four 3-pointers.

UConn, which also got 12 points each from Caron Butler and Johnnie Selvie, shot 47.9 percent from the floor and pounded Tech on the glass, 37-26. Tech, which got 12 points from Mibindo Dongo, shot just 33.3 percent from the floor.

"Right now, we just have to continue to improve and play better," Stokes said. "That will only help us for next year. I thought we played with effort and we've done a better job of limiting our turnovers [15 against the Huskies]. We just need to continue to play hard and put forth the effort."

Tech next travels to Providence, R.I., for a Tuesday night game with Providence. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.