CINCINNATI, Ohio – The No. 19 UConn men's basketball team (14-6, 6-3 BIG EAST) dropped a tight 76-72 decision on the road at Xavier (13-8, 5-5 BIG EAST) on Saturday night at the Cintas Center. Solo Ball notched his first career double-double with 20 points and a career-high 11 rebounds in the setback.

UConn erased deficits of 21-11 and 28-18 in the first half to take a one-point lead to the break, getting 13 points in the opening 20 minutes from Ball. Foul trouble and cold 3-point shooting plagued the Huskies for much of the second half, allowing Xavier to push its lead back to double-figures with 5:30 to play. From there the Huskies charged, going on a late 13-5 run to pull back within two before ultimately falling short.

Joining Ball atop the scoresheet was Aidan Mahaney with 14 off the bench while Hassan Diarra and Samson Johnson both added 12. Alex Karaban was limited to nine points and five rebounds before fouling out for the first time this season midway through the second half. For Xavier, Zach Freemantle and Dailyn Swain both scored 15 and Dante Maddox Jr. continued his mastery of Connecticut with 14 off the bench.

How it Happened

The Musketeers landed the first blow, starting the contest on a 7-2 run in the opening minutes. UConn took its first lead of the day by scoring the next six, going up 8-7 with a Ball 3-pointer at 15:03. That lead was short-lived, and a 9-0 run by the Musketeers prompted a UConn timeout with 10:37 to play in the first down 21-11.

The Huskies answered, using a 7-0 run capped by another Ball triple to force a Xavier timeout barely 90 seconds later at 9:06. The half of runs continued as Xavier went back up 10 with seven-straight, but the Huskies once again answered and pulled within four at 28-24 before a stoppage came with 5:31 on the first half clock.

Late in the first, UConn put the clamps on and held Xavier without a field goal for over five minutes of game time and took a 33-32 lead with a pair of Mahaney free throws at 2:22 of the opening stanza. A Mahaney triple on the next trip gave UConn its largest lead of the half at four, and another trifecta from the junior in the dying moments of the period helped the Huskies take a 41-40 edge to the break.

Early in the second a put-back slam from Johnson gave the Huskies a three-point lead, but Xavier answered with a 7-0 run to go up 53-49 and prompt a timeout at 14:33. Overall it was a prolonged 13-2 run for the Musketeers to give them a 59-51 lead midway through the frame.

A Mahaney driving finish at 8:50 slimmed the Xavier advantage back to four at 61-57 and sparked another XU timeout. The contest stayed within two possessions until the 6:08 mark when Maddox Jr. hit a triple before a free throw pushed the lead back to 10 at 69-59.

The Huskies continued to fight as a Jayden Ross steal-and-score at 2:36 got it back to four, and with 1:29 to go Ball was fouled on a 3-point attempt and hit all three to cut it to 74-72. After a pair of stops UConn got the ball back down two with under a minute to play, but the Musketeers were able to force a shot clock violation and salt the game away with two free throws.

Inside The Numbers

• Both sides shot exactly 26-55 (47.3) percent from the field and hit seven 3-pointers,– they also finished with exactly 36 paint point apiece
  • The Huskies struggled from beyond the arc and shot 26.9 percent from the game, going 1-of-11 from deep in the second half
• Xavier turned a +4 turnover differential into a 22-16 edge in points off miscues
• Connecticut finished +8 on the glass behind Ball's 11 caroms  and held a 13-7 advantage in second chance points
• The Huskies finished with a 7-3 edge in blocked shots
  • Johnson tied a career-high with five rejections
  • UConn came into the contest second in the nation with 6.7 swats per game
  • In his last two contests Johnson has blocked nine shots

News and Notes

• UConn is now 7-5 all-time against Xavier, seeing a four-game winning streak in the series snapped. The Huskies drop to 2-3 all-time at the Cintas Center
• Ball notched his first career double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds
  • Ball has scored in double-digits in 18 of UConn's 20 contests – he hit double-figures only three times as a freshman last season
  • It was also his fourth 20-point output, second on the team (Karaban, 5)
  • He is the fifth Husky this season to record a double-double and third to notch a 20 and 10 game
  • The 11 rebounds for Ball mark a new career-high, topping his previous best of six
• The double-figure scoring effort for Mahaney was his fourth of the season and the 56^th of his career
• UConn falls to 6-5 this season in games decided by six points or less and 4-2 in true road games

Up Next

The Huskies are back at home on Wednesday, Jan. 29 for an 8 p.m. match-up with DePaul at the XL Center.