Pittsburgh Pittsburgh/Connecticut UConn Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

With his double-double, Brown became the second freshman in school history to record back-to-back games with 10 or more assists. He had 12 assists in UConn's overtime win against St. John's on Saturday.

Before the St. John's game coach Jim Calhoun told Brown the team was his to lead. The results were immediate.

"Sometimes just the mere act of telling a kid 'I'm going to believe in you and I know we can play better with you.' Obviously he's responded very well," Calhoun said.

The first freshman to reach that mark was teammate Caron Butler, who had consecutive double-digit assist games earlier this season. Butler finished with 11 points Wednesday and has scored in double figures in all 12 of his games this season.

Brown kept UConn's uptempo transition game on track most of the night. He had three of UConn's eight steals to start the breaks and usually found an open teammate to finish them.

"Pushing the ball and get it up quick -- that's our main thing," Brown said. "Everybody finally starting to feel comfortable with me at the point. They know I'm going to get it to them."

Reserve Edmund Saunders scored 15 points for the Huskies (13-2, 2-1 Big East) and led the team with eight rebounds. Ricardo Greer led Pittsburgh (9-5, 1-2) with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Saunders, a senior, lost his starting role to Johnnie Selvie before the St. John's game. Calhoun said he likes the way Saunders responded to the demotion. In the past two games, Saunders has scored 32 points and grabbed 16 rebounds.

"His composure has been one step above to prove that he can take a little bit of adversity," Calhoun said. "I think the other kids see that. It rubs off on them and I think they actually play better because of that."

The Huskies led from wire-to-wire in this game. A combination of UConn's transition offense, solid post play and poor Pittsburgh shooting put the Panthers in a hole early.

Pittsburgh shot 1-for-8 in the first few minutes of the game. Butler's dunk at 8:48 kicked off a 10-2 run giving UConn a 29-17 lead, its largest of the half.

The Panthers then began to heat up and countered with an 8-0 run, keyed by Zelimir Stevanovic's 3-pointer with 5:30 left to shave the lead to 29-25. The Panthers trailed 37-31 at the break.

Butler's bucket 50 seconds into the second half started a 13-3 UConn run and the Huskies steadily pulled away. UConn led by 21 points with less than five minutes to play.

"We had a couple wide-open looks and couldn't knock them down," Pittsburgh coach Ben Howland said. "They really went at us inside and exploited our defense in the interior with their size."

UConn outmuscled Pittsburgh down low, outscoring the Panthers 46-26 in the paint. The Huskies also got 24 points off 18 Pittsburgh turnovers.

ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard

Pittsburgh Clubhouse

Connecticut Clubhouse

AUDIO/VIDEO
video
UConn's Edmund Saunders finishes off the fast break with the jam.
avi: 504 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1

Pitt's Ricardo Greer feeds Isaac Hawkins on the alley-oop.
avi: 509 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1