Hurley laments ‘robust 2 days’ as UConn falls once more
LAHAINA, Hawaii — Andrej Jakimovski transformed an off-balance layup with eight seconds left, and Colorado handed No. 2 UConn its second loss in two days on the Maui Invitational, beating the two-time defending nationwide champion 73-72 on Tuesday.
A day after a 99-97 additional time loss to Memphis that left Huskies coach Dan Hurley furious concerning the officiating, UConn (4-2) could not shake the unranked Buffaloes (5-1), who shot 62.5% within the second half.
The Huskies led 40-32 at halftime and by 9 factors early within the second half, however Colorado rapidly closed that hole.
With Colorado trailing 72-71 within the closing seconds, Jakimovski drove to his proper and absorbed contact from UConn’s Liam McNeeley. He tossed the ball towards the glass and the shot was good as he fell to the ground. Hassan Diarra missed a 3-pointer simply forward of the buzzer for UConn.
“At halftime, I felt like we have been going to do what we do at UConn, which might be get it to double figures after which surge in that recreation, and it simply did not occur for us,” Hurley mentioned, including that it has been “a tricky two days” for the Huskies. “But it surely’s early, and we’ll have lots of possibilities to get these ones that we have given away. We bought lots of possibilities to get these again.
McNeeley led UConn with 20 factors.
Elijah Malone and Julian Hammond III scored 16 factors every for Colorado, and Jakimovski had 12 factors and 10 rebounds.
UConn is the fifth ranked staff in AP Ballot historical past to lose by two factors or fewer on consecutive days and the primary since Michigan dropped one-point video games to UTEP and Texas Tech in December 1983, in response to ESPN Analysis.
Takeaways
UConn: Hurley’s squad is dealing with its first adversity in fairly some time. The Huskies arrived on Maui with a 17-game profitable streak that dated to February.
Colorado: The Buffaloes have been held to season lows in factors (56) and area purpose proportion (37%) in a 16-point loss to Michigan State on Monday however shot 51.1% total and 56.3% (9 of 16) from 3-point vary in opposition to the Huskies.
Hurley referred to as timeout to arrange the Huskies’ closing possession, however the Buffs compelled them to take a contested 3.
Colorado had a 28-26 rebounding benefit after being outrebounded 42-29 by Michigan State.
Colorado will play Iowa State, an 89-84 winner over Dayton, within the fifth-place recreation Wednesday. UConn will play the Flyers within the seventh-place recreation.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
