Dante Maddox Jr. poured in 14 points, including three 3-pointers, to lead the Xavier Musketeers to a 76-72 win over the 19th-ranked UConn Huskies in a highly charged Big East contest Saturday night in Cincinnati.
Dailyn Swain added 15 points and Zach Freemantle converted a key three-point play with 2:10 left and also finished with 15 points for Xavier (13-8, 5-5 Big East), which bounced back after blowing a 16-point lead in a road loss at St. John’s three days earlier.
Solo Ball had a game-high 20 points and Aidan Mahaney had 14 to lead UConn (14-6, 6-3), which has alternated wins and losses in its last six games.
After they battled in a tense overtime game won by the Huskies, 94-89, on Dec. 18 in Hartford, the two teams played another back-and-forth, tightly contested game Saturday.
After voicing complaints about officiating and his televised outbursts following UConn’s OT escape Tuesday against Butler, UConn coach Dan Hurley was the subject of jeers and profane taunts from the start from an energized Xavier crowd.
Ball drew a foul from Marcus Foster while shooting a 3-pointer with 1:29 remaining. Ball made all three free throws to cut Xavier’s lead to 74-72. After a defensive stop, Ball missed an open three with 25 seconds left, with the Huskies grabbing the offensive rebound. But Jayden Ross dribbled out the shot clock with 5.9 seconds left before Foster drilled two free throws to ice the game.
Wearing their 1980s throwback uniforms before a raucous capacity home crowd, the Musketeers built a pair of 10-point first-half leads only to have UConn rally with runs of 7-0 and 8-0.
Mahaney knocked down a desperation 3-pointer as the shot clock was expiring to cap an 18-4 UConn surge and give the Huskies their biggest first half lead at 36-32. After opening the game missing 13 of their first 19 shots, the Huskies recovered in the final seven minutes, making nine of their final 10 shots of the half.
The final 90 seconds of the first half was filled with momentum swings, featuring a pair of treys from Freemantle and Foster, while Mahaney drained another triple before Dayvion McKnight hit a jumper at the buzzer to cut UConn’s lead to one, 41-40, at the half.
UConn big man Alex Karaban went to the bench with his fourth foul with 11:19 left in the second half, forcing the Huskies to go with a smaller lineup until his return with 7:27 remaining. Karaban would foul out with 3:27 remaining, scoring just nine points on 4-of-13 shooting.
–Field Level Media
