In a tense, emotionally-charged battle, the No. 24 UConn men’s basketball team came up short the against the No. 25 Xavier Musketeers Friday night 64-78. The Huskies fall to 16-7 and 7-5 in the Big East. RJ Cole led UConn with 22 points, while Tyrese Martin added 18. Adama Sanogo chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds, but was mostly held in check by Xavier’s frontline and dealt with foul trouble for most of the first half.
The Cincinnati crowd was rabid ahead of the Super Bowl, with orange Why Not Us t-shirts and a general pent-up feverishness creating quite the homecourt advantage.