Box Score

NEWARK, N.J.  – The UConn men's basketball team (17-8, 9-5 BIG EAST) dropped a 69-68 overtime heartbreaker at Seton Hall (7-18, 2-12 BIG EAST) on Saturday afternoon at the Prudential Center. The Huskies have now lost four-straight at the home of The Hall.

UConn trailed by three after a sluggish first half, but used a second-half surge to go up as many as seven late in the second. A confluence of turnovers and late-game heroics helped the Pirates force overtime, where the Huskies again appeared poised for victory leading by five with under a minute to play. Once again, turnovers and out-of-character shot-making allowed the Pirates to sneak back in and hit a game-winner in the final seconds.

Alex Karaban led Connecticut with 20 points in the setback and added six boards with three blocked shots, logging a career high 44:23. Solo Ball added 15 with seven caroms and Liam McNeeley followed his career day at Creighton by narrowly missing a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. Hassan Diarra was the fourth Husky in double-figures with 12 points and a game-high five assists off the bench. Isaiah Coleman led all players with 23 points for Seton Hall and Dylan Addae-Wusu added 13, including a clutch triple to help force overtime.

How it Happened

The two sides traded early stops before finding their footing, and an offensive rebound leading to a McNeeley bucket gave the Huskies a 9-4 lead at 13:45 of the opening stanza. Later in the frame Seton Hall took its first lead, taking advantage of a cold shooting spell and using a 7-0 run to go up 21-17 before a UConn timeout at 5:22 of the first.

The Pirates would extend their run all the way to 11-0, going up as many as eight before Ball snapped a six-plus minute scoring drought with a 3-pointer at 2:42. A Karaban tip-in late in the frame helped cut it back to possession at the break, with UConn going into the half down 25-22.

The Hall went back up seven early in the second half and the Huskies continued to struggle offensively as they attempted to rally back. A 3-pointer from Jaylin Stewart with 12:19 to play cut the deficit to 35-31, and triples from Karaban and Ball gave the Huskies a 39-37 lead that forced SHU to call for time with 8:27 to go in regulation.

Down 48-47 with less than five to play, the Huskies made their move. McNeeley got a run started with a spinning lefty lay-up, then drilled a corner 3-pointer at 2:58 to put UConn up four. After a stop and Ball rebound, Karaban connected from way downtown to make it an 8-0 run and put the Huskies up 55-48 before Seton Hall called for time with 1:42 to play.

The Pirates clawed their way back within a possession late, and the Huskies turned it over twice in the final 30 seconds to keep the door open. That led to a game-tying 3-pointer from the Pirates with under five seconds to play, and UConn's half-court heave was off the mark to the send the contest to overtime.

After a McNeeley lefty finish gave UConn the lead in the extra frame, a Ball corner 3-pointer at 2:45 made it 66-61 in favor of the Huskies. Inside of the final minute Karaban found Tarris Reed Jr. inside for a lay-up that made it 68-63 and prompted a Seton Hall timeout with 54.4 on the clock in OT.

Inside of the final minute, everything that could go wrong for the Huskies seemed to. Three turnovers in the final minute of overtime allowed the Pirates to score the game's final six points, including a game-winning lay-up with 3.4 to go.

Inside The Numbers

• UConn shot a season-low 37.3 percent (22-59) from the floor, its fourth-straight game under 40 percent after never failing to hit the mark in its first 22 contests
• Conversely, UConn held SHU to a 39.1 percent (25-64) mark and has now held its last five BIG EAST opponents to 42.0 percent or worse – a feat previously accomplished twice through the first nine league games
• The Huskies finished with a 41-35 edge on the glass led by nine caroms from McNeeleey, seven for Ball and six apiece from Karaban and Samson Johnson
• UConn was -7 in turnover margin but out-scored SHU 11-9 off miscues
• Connecticut held a 7-4 edge in blocked shots - they came into the day second in the country with 6.5 per game

News and Notes

• The Huskies fall to 49-24 all-time against the Pirates and have dropped four-straight at the Prudential Center
  • Dan Hurley is now 6-6 as a head coach against this alma mater
• Karaban finished with 20 points and now has 1,214 in his career, passing Donny Marshall (1,197) to move into a tie with Albert Mouring for 39^th in UConn history
  • Karaban notched his sixth 20-point outing of the year and first since Dec. 21
  • The Husky captain hit a pair of 3-pointers, his first game with multiple trifectas since Jan. 21
• The Huskies fall to 5-5 this year when trailing at the half and 2-2 in overtime
• Samson Johnson grabbed a season-high six rebounds
• The double-figure scoring game for Diarra was his 11th of the season and first since Jan. 25
  • The fifth-year continued to battle injury and gutted out 29 minutes after being limited to seven on Tuesday
  • Diarra's 12 points eclipsed the 11 he had scored in the four games prior
• Ball hit a game-high four 3-pointers and has scored in double-figures in 23 of 25 contests

Up Next

The Huskies are back at home for their penultimate XL Center contest of the season when they host Villanova on Tuesday, Feb. 18 in Hartford.