UConn falls on a late basket against Colorado, losing for the second straight year

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Andrej Jakimovski converted an off-balance layup with eight seconds left and Colorado handed No. 2 UConn its second loss in two days at the Maui Invitational, beating the two-time defending champions 73-72 on Tuesday.

A day after a 99-97 overtime loss to Memphis that left Huskies coach Dan Hurley infuriated with officiating, UConn (4-2) couldn’t beat the unranked Buffaloes (5-1), the 62.5% shooting in the second half.

The Huskies led 40-32 at halftime and nine points early in the second half, but Colorado quickly closed that gap.

With Colorado trailing 72-71 in the final seconds, Jakimovski drove to his right and absorbed contact from UConn’s Liam McNeeley. He threw the ball towards the glass and the shot was good as it fell to the ground. Hassan Diarra missed a 3-pointer just before the buzzer for UConn.

“At halftime I felt like we were going to do what we do at UConn, which is get to double digits and then go up in this game, and we just didn’t do that,” Hurley said, adding, “Two tough ones Days” for the Huskies. “But it is still early and we will have many chances to get the lost specimens back. We have a lot of chances to get them back.”

McNeeley led UConn with 20 points.

Elijah Malone and Julian Hammond III each scored 16 points for Colorado, and Jakimovski had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

According to ESPN Research, UConn is the fifth-ranked team in AP Poll history to lose by two points or less on consecutive days and the first since Michigan lost games by one point to UTEP and Texas Tech in December 1983.

Takeaways

UConn: Hurley’s squad faces its first difficult situation in a long time. The Huskies arrived in Maui on a 17-game winning streak that stretched into February.

Colorado: The Buffaloes set season lows in points (56) and field goal percentage (37%) in a 16-point loss to Michigan State on Monday, but shot 51.1% overall and 56.3% (9 of 16) from 3-point range against the Huskies.

Key moment

Hurley called a timeout to set up the Huskies’ final possession, but the Buffs forced them into a contested three-pointer.

Key statistics

Colorado had a 28-26 rebounding advantage after Michigan State outscored it 42-29.

Next

Colorado faces Iowa State, which beat Dayton 89-84, in the fifth-place game on Wednesday. UConn plays the Flyers in the seventh-place game.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.