UConn point guard Marcus Williams was in the holiday spirit Wednesday evening as UConn defeated Central Connecticut 87-59 at the Hartford Civic Center. Tis better to give than to receive and that's just what Williams did, dishing a school record 16 assists to his teammates just hours before the team would disperse for their individual holiday celebrations with family and friends.

Santa Williams delivered his teammates the goods to the delight of the coaches, players, and fans...as well as his mother.

"My Mom, she's been on me about not playing hard," said Williams after the game. "She told me I better play today like I had a rocket on my back."

And after listening to coach Jim Calhoun's post game press conference, it appears that Marcus got some great advice from Mom.

"His biggest problem is taking plays off, he's just not used to going hard all the time," said Calhoun. "Kevin (Ollie) and Taliek (Brown) never had 16 assists but they didn't take any plays off. I don't think either one was as gifted a passer as (Marcus) is. He's never going to have the speed that either one of those guys played at; but he can play at a much better speed than he sometimes shows. He showed some of that tonight and that's why he got 16 assists."

Williams, who led a strong UConn transition attack, also threw solid passes into the post to exploit Connecticut's height advantage as the Huskies scored 54 points in the paint. Josh Boone and Charlie Villanueva would be the recipients of many of Williams dishes as they combined for 40 points, 18 rebounds, and 6 blocks.

"Games like this you can lose focus easily," said Villanueva. "We just tried to pound them inside and Marcus distributed the ball well."

Williams would make a conscious decision to help Villanueva out of a mini-slump, making an extra effort to get him the ball.

"I have a good relationship with Marcus. I told him if he can look for me, do that. Try to get me the ball in certain positions, and he definitely did that," said Villanueva who finished the game with 20 points on 9-15 shooting.

And Williams was more than happy to play Santa for the day.

"(Charlie) needed a confidence boost," said Williams. "I was just trying to give my big man a confidence boost tonight. I think he's going to go home for Christmas real happy."

Williams and Rashad Anderson would break the game open early in the second half as Marcus recognized Anderson's hot hand and assisted him on three 3-pointers in under two minutes to increase a 15 point lead to 24 with 18:04 still remaining in the second half.

"A lot of point guards just get you the ball," said Anderson who finished with 16 points. "Marcus gets you the ball where you can really score, where you're best. I really got into a rhythm."

"I thought Marcus played very good defense and I thought he obviously distributed the ball," said Calhoun. "Sixteen assists is an awful lot...I've always felt that he's a gifted passer and a couple of passes he threw tonight were absolutely terrific."

Freshman Rudy Gay also had a strong outing for the Huskies as he scored 16 points on 7-8 shooting to go along with 5 rebounds and four blocked shots in 27 minutes of action in his second career start. Williams, who has been pushing Rudy to get the most out of him, likes what he saw.

"I've been trying to get Rudy to be more aggressive since day one," said Williams. "Rudy is a real good talent. I think when he's real aggressive he's real effective. He can shoot it, he can go to the rim, he can out-jump anybody. So I'm just trying to get him to be aggressive."

News and Notes

Calhoun was generally happy with the way his team played Thursday against Central Connecticut and feels they are making strides. But Calhoun also knows he needs to be patient with this group as they find their identity as a team.

"What I want to see more of is pure domination," said Calhoun after UConn's win Thursday. "We haven't dominated people the way I would like to. Maybe we're not quite capable of doing that yet. I think we're more capable today though than we were a couple of weeks ago."

Several former Huskies attended the UConn/Central game Thursday evening including Travis Knight, Shamon Tooles, Edmund Saunders, and Kwasi Gyambibi.

UConn will resume practice at 8:00 pm on Christmas evening in preparation for Tuesday nights match up with Sacred Heart at 7:00 pm at the Hartford Civic Center.

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