Kemba Walker and the No. 8 UConn Huskies earned their first signature Big East win of the year in front of a raucous crowd at Gampel Pavilion yesterday afternoon, defeating No. 7 Villanova 61-59 in a hard fought battle that went right down to the very last shot.

With time winding down, the ball found its way into Walker’s hands. He then split two defenders to get into the lane, burying the game-winning floater with two seconds left on the clock.

Walker scored the Huskies’ last seven points, starting with a huge three-pointer to give the Huskies a 57-54 lead and adding to it seconds later with two free throws.

With less than a minute to go and a five point lead, it seemed that the game was already won. But then Villanova’s Corey Fisher hit a big three of his own. When Walker missed both foul shots on the ensuing possession, the Wildcats had a chance to tie it up, which they did on two Fisher free throws.

Then Walker took over.

“That’s what it came down to. Of course the ball was going to be in my hands,” Walker said. “Being the leader of this team, I wanted it to be in my hands. I was able to get a nice little shot off.”

“They ran two guys at him, so Kemba did what Kemba does,” said coach Jim Calhoun. “He split the two, and got to where he wanted to be, and that’s an amazing play.”

The exciting finish came on the heels of one of the most excruciating halves of basketball you could imagine. The score at the end of the first half was 22-21 Villanova, and both teams were shooting 24 percent from the field and roughly 27.5 percent from behind the arc.

The shooting woes for the Huskies were especially evident, as the team got off to a 10-0 start but then slowly allowed Villanova to climb back into the game. There was even a stretch of 5:42 in the middle of the half when UConn didn’t score a single basket.

The quality of play improved greatly in the second half, and the Huskies were able to get key contributions from Jeremy Lamb down the stretch as well. Lamb finished with 14 points, and was instrumental down the stretch, particularly at the point with roughly seven minutes to go when Villanova took a 46-41 lead and looked ready to potentially take control of the game. Lamb hit a big layup to cut the deficit to one, and then hit another one to give the team a 52-48 lead about a minute later.

“I know he scored points at DePaul in an open game, but this was a little different,” Calhoun said. “This was a Big East game with a lot of screens being set, and he fought his way through the screens. And I thought he played terrific defense.”

“I’m getting comfortable – more and more comfortable,” Lamb said. “My teammates were looking for me, and I was able to knock down some shots.”

That key point in the second half, when the Huskies came back from the five-point deficit, also sparked an explosion of crowd energy that could only be rivaled by last year’s Texas game in terms of crowd noise. From the very start the fans were electric. But starting at the seven-minute mark of the second half and lasting until the end, the entire crowd was on its feet.

“Down the stretch of the game, it was just an incredible crowd,” Calhoun said. “I don’t know if we could have won that kind of game on the road.”

With the win, the Huskies improve to 15-2 overall, 4-2 in the Big East. The team will be back in action this Saturday when they host Tennessee in Hartford at 2 p.m.