UConn men’s basketball defeated Xavier on Wednesday evening at the Cintas Center, 90-67. The Huskies started the game 9-2 and kept running, getting to 30-6 and closing strong as they ended the calendar year with a bang.
Jayden Ross was a late scratch with a hamstring injury, but everyone else played as 11 Huskies contributed to the victory effort, led by 19 points from Alex Karaban and 17 each from Solo Ball and Braylon Mullins. UConn hit 53 percent of its field goals and 13-of-28 (46%) threes and dominated on the glass, 42-26.
The Musketeers have been one of the surprises in the league this season under new head coach Richard Pitino. After a slow start, they won six of seven headed into Wednesday, including wins over West Virginia, Cincinnati, and Georgetown. They had no such luck against the Huskies.
UConn got off to a red-hot start from deep. Silas Demary Jr., Braylon Mullins, and Solo Ball all connected on threes before the first media timeout as UConn led 12-4 in the blink of an eye.
After that media timeout, an alley-oop to Ball from Mullins and a transition slam from Karaban made it 16-4 and forced Pitino to burn his first time-out less than five minutes in. After missing the last game with a wrist injury, Ball looked like himself as he finished 6-of-10 from the field.
The UConn run reached 24-4 over a 7:30 minute span. Tarris Reed Jr. had a pair of three-point plays during this stretch and was dominating inside. He had eight points in a 90-second span. The senior finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
The offense slowed down a bit over the final eight minutes, and Xavier took advantage, outscoring the Huskies 20-10 behind some aggressive play towards the rim. The Musketeers shot 0-10 from three in the first half and weren’t able to get many good looks, a credit to the Husky perimeter defense.
On the contrary, UConn splashed six triples in the first half with Jaylin Stewart connecting late for his points of the night as they led 43-28 at the break.
Mullins knocked down a three on the first possession of the second half, but Xavier countered with five straight to cut the deficit down to 13. Right after, the freshman connected yet again on his career-best fourth trey.
The sides were trading jabs early in the second, but a Ball three right before the first media timeout silenced the crowd and made it 56-40. Malachi Smith broke out of his small slump with a three on the flip side of the stoppage, the Huskies’ 10th of the night.
Those threes ignited a 13-2 run to push the UConn advantage back up to where it was in the first half. Mullins hit his fifth three to continue building on his career day. He finished with 17 points, six rebounds, and four assists in his most well-rounded game in a Husky uniform.
Karaban knocked down the Huskies’ twelfth three with an open shot on the right wing that forced another Xavier timeout. His next three after that pushed him into sole possession of fifth place on the all-time made threes list in UConn history, passing Chris Smith. He led all scorers and has had two great games in a row.
The Huskies emptied the bench at the end of the game and got buckets from Jacob Furphy and Uros Paunovic at the very end on the way to a 90-67 victory to end 2025 on top. The 13 threes the team hit is a season high and marks the first time they hit more than 10 in a contest this year.
Next up, the Huskies return home for their first game of 2026 and host Marquette on Sunday at Gampel Pavilion. Tip-off will be at 2:00 p.m. EST on Peacock and NBCSN.
Led by Shaka Smart, the Golden Eagles are 5-9 without a key win up to this point in the year. They’re 0-8 against high-major programs so far this season. In league play, Marquette is 0-3 with losses at home against Georgetown and Seton Hall and on the road at Creighton. They’re ranked 119th in KenPom overall efficiency (146th Offense, 99th Defense).
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