HARTFORD – There are games.

And there are statement games.

Yesterday was a statement game.

•Against UConn.

•At the Hartford Civic Center.

•The Friars’ first road win of the season.

•Following a home loss to Villanova Tuesday night.

A statement game.

•The kind of game this team so desperately needed.

And making it all the better was that at halftime the Friars seemed on the verge of being blown out of the building, another game where they could begin to feel their season slipping away from them. For seasons don’t usually die in one dramatic moment, complete with the sound of trumpets. They die in those games when you lose by one point on the road at Seton Hall. They die when you get beat at home by Villanova, on a night when you simply didn’t play very well. They die in dribs and drabs, chances that slip away like the summers of youth.

And throughout the first half yesterday it appeared the UConn game was going to be another one, appeared the Friars were headed for their fourth loss in five games, another road loss. They were down 11 at the half, the Huskies had discovered a shooting touch that’s been absent all year, and it seemed as if it was to be PC’s fate to play this young UConn team on the wrong day, an afternoon where their touted young players looked as if they finally were going to start to live up to all the hype.

Enter Weyinmi Efejuku.

He’s not the only reason the Friars won yesterday, not by a long shot. But over a 10-minute stretch at the beginning of the second half, the PC sophomore from Rice High School in New York City, via Brewster Academy, was not only a human highlight film, he also was unquestionably the best athlete on the court. Think about that for a second. UConn has a roster full of big-time recruits, the kind the Friars can’t get. They have several players supposedly fast-tracked to the NBA. Yet yesterday, anyway, Efejuku was at a different level athletically.

He scored in transition. He made jump shots. In the first five minutes of the half he scored nine straight points as PC came thought that back to take control of the game. Then, a couple of minutes later, he added two big exclamation points, a dunk on an alley-oop, then another reverse dunk out of some old Michael Jordan highlight film, two incredibly athletic moves that were symbolic of the Friars taking over the game.

After this?

The Friars were up 11 with just under 10 minutes to play and the Huskies were all but back in their cages, done for the day.

Somehow it was only fitting.

For Efejuku has been the overlooked Friar. Herbert Hill is having a great season. Geoff McDermott has gotten a lot of attention for his blue-collar versatility. Sharaud Curry has been the leading scorer most of the season. Efujuku? Sometime he gets lost in the shuffle. In a sense, though, he’s usually the barometer of this team. When he struggles, the Friars struggle. When he plays well, the Friars play well.

Yesterday, he played great.

In a very tough place to play.

``When you first come in here it’s a little overwhelming,” he said. ``UConn. Jim Calhoun. The size of the building. But you don’t think about that once they roll out the ball.”

That was the other great thing about yesterday. Tim Welsh said he thought his team had been soft against Villanova, had, in basketball terms, been punched in the face. Yesterday, they punched back.

He also knew his team needed a road win. For it’s one thing to play well at home, another to play well on the road. The road is where you make your statement as a team, prove your toughness, prove you belong in some postseason tournament somewhere. The road is where you make your bones as a team. And until yesterday, not only had the Friars lost four straight, they hadn’t looked very tough in the process, as if once they left the familiar sound of the Dunk they became mere pretenders, a still young team trying to find its way in the basketball woods.

That’s what yesterday’s first half looked like. The Huskies were actually making jump shots and the Friars looked little more than an opponent: show up, lose, go home, thanks for coming. Until Efejuku turned into a basketball Superman, and everyone else seemed to jump on his cape. Until the Friars put their stamp all over the game, one of their best performances of the season, a game that was not only a jolt of adrenaline to their season, but serves notice that the Friars are not about to go quietly in this Big East season.

A statement game.

breynold@projo.com