Rapid Recap: UConn falters late in loss to Colorado
By Serenity J. Bishop
The UConn Huskies’ second-half struggles led to their second straight upset loss Tuesday evening as a layup with eight seconds left gave Colorado the win, 73-72, in the second round of the Maui Invitational.
The No. 2 Huskies were once again plagued by poor execution, foul trouble, and turnovers. They’re likely to fall precipitously in the rankings, maybe even out of the top 25.
In Monday afternoon's loss to Memphis, early foul trouble forced the Huskies to quickly go deep in the bench. Against Colorado, three players (Alex Karaban. Tarris Reed Jr., Hassan Diarra) were each called for multiple fouls within the first 10 minutes. Diarra, who was starting in Aidan Mahaney’s previous spot, was sent back to the bench within four minutes after his second foul.
Despite the early foul trouble, Liam McNeeley steadied the ship. He led all scorers with 16 points in the first half, shooting 71 percent from the field and 4-5 from the three-point line after 20 minutes.
UConn’s ability to hit from the three-point line as a team allowed the Huskies to go up as much as 11 points in the first half even with Colorado shooting 19 free throws in comparison to UConn’s four in the first half.
The Huskies led Colorado 40-32 at the break. But the second half was a different story.
UConn’s poor execution and turnovers allowed the Buffaloes to mount an 11-0 run to take the lead 48-46. The two teams battled over the next few minutes with Colorado staying right on the heels of UConn, who’s offense suffered once McNeeley left the game briefly due to a hip injury.
Tied at 65 with less than four minutes to go, McNeeley returned from the locker room and the Huskies helped push the lead back up to five points after Solo Ball knocked down his fourth three-pointer and hit a layup while being fouled.
However, Colorado didn’t go away. With both Samson Johnson and Reed fouling out of the game, the Buffaloes took advantage of UConn’s small lineup and got to the paint with Colorado ultimately taking the lead on a Andrej Jakimovski layup with just eight seconds left.
Poor execution on UConn’s inbound play led to a Diarra desperation shot from the three-point line that missed as time expired.
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