El-Amin Leads Huskies Again
Five days ago, in an impressive win over No. 2 Arizona, Connecticut needed Khalid El-Amin to score and he did, finishing with 23 points.
On Sunday, the sixth-ranked Huskies needed the junior point guard to make sure the ball got inside early against visiting Fordham, and he did with eight assists in a 94-75 victory.
“I’ve always been like that, I’m not trying to be a leader, it’s just the natural way for me to play,” said El-Amin, who had 10 points. “It’s not about trying to be a passer or trying to be a scorer. It’s about winning. If I have to score 50 for us to win I will.”
The defending national champions didn’t need much from their starters as they pulled away from a 46-26 halftime lead to improve their record to 7-1.
Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said El-Amin was equally impressive in both wins. “He led us with his shooting and scoring against Arizona,” he said.
“Today he led us in a different way and that’s great for us.”
Fordham (4-4) had to play without second leading scorer and rebounder Bevon Robin. The junior guard was suspended for the game by Coach Bob Hill for violating team rules. “It happened last night, almost today,” Hill said without giving details.
No. 7 North Carolina 85, Tennessee Tech 59--Ed Cota scored 15 points and reached the 1,000-point plateau as the Tar Heels (7-2) beat the Golden Eagles (3-4) for their first home victory. North Carolina lost to Michigan State in its home opener.
Cota finished with seven assists and now has 826 in his career. He is one of four Tar Heels to have 1,000 points and 500 assists.
Another is Jeff Lebo, Tennessee Tech’s second-year coach. Lebo set the school record for assists in a game with 17 in 1988, and Cota tied that record against Nevada Las Vegas on Saturday night.
The other Tar Heels in the 1000-500 club are Phil Ford and Kenny Smith.
“It’s a nice accomplishment, but not a big deal to me,” Cota said. “Most guys get 1,000 points in two or three years. It took me four. It will look good in the record books.”
After some close games and a 77-68 loss to No. 1 Cincinnati earlier this week, North Carolina needed this game.
Down, 42-22, at halftime, Tennessee Tech, third in the nation in three-point shooting, made five straight from behind the arc in the opening minutes of the second half to narrow the gap.
But the Tar Heels regained their 20-point lead when Cota put back his own miss to put North Carolina up, 63-42, with 11:08 remaining.
No. 17 Oklahoma State 97, San Diego State 63--Desmond Mason scored 20 points and Joe Adkins added 16 as the Cowboys (7-0) beat the Aztecs (1-3) at Oklahoma City.
Marcelo Correa had 22 points for San Diego State, which trailed, 47-19, at halftime and was outrebounded in the game, 40-24.
“We got spanked by an awfully, awfully good team,” Aztec Coach Steve Fisher said. “We won’t see anyone better this year unless we win our conference tournament and go to the NCAA tournament.”
Oklahoma State Coach Eddie Sutton said, “Offensively, it’s kind of hard to be critical.”