No. 2 UConn entered the Maui Invitational as the favorite in a stacked field to win the Feast Week showcase.
Instead, it has a date for the seventh-place game. Unranked Colorado rallied for a 73-72 win over UConn on Tuesday. The loss was the second in two games for the Huskies in Maui.
UConn lost a 99-97 overtime thriller on Monday to unranked Memphis. The game featured an outburst from head coach Dan Hurley directed at officials that resulted in a costly technical foul in overtime. Hurley doubled down against the officials in an unforgiving postgame rant that didn’t take responsibility for his technical foul.
Tuesday brought further disappointment for a UConn team that’s off to a rough start in its quest for a third consecutive national championship. The Huskies are now 4-2 without having played a ranked team.
UConn held the lead on Tuesday for the entirety of the first half that it led 40-32 at the break. But hot 3-point shooting allowed the Buffaloes to rally after halftime. Colorado took its first lead on a Julian Hammond 3-pointer at 48-46. It then retook the lead at 57-56 on an RJ Smith 3.
UConn repeatedly answered the Colorado runs and held a 72-69 lead with 1:29 remaining. But Colorado scored the last four points of the game including a go-ahead layup in traffic by Andrej Jakimovski.
UConn had a last look at the basket following a timeout with 5.9 seconds remaining. But Hassan Diarra’s go-ahead 3-point attempt clanged off the rim just before the final buzzer sounded.
For the game, Colorado shot 51.1% from the field including a 9-of-16 (56.3%) effort from 3-point distance. Hammond led the way with a 4-for-5 effort from long distance en route to 16 points. Jakimovski hit 2 of 4 3-point attempts en route to 12 points and 10 rebounds. Elijah Malone tied Hammond for the team scoring lead with 16 points on a 6-for-10 shooting effort from the field.
The Huskies finished the game without starting center Samson Johnson and backup center Tarris Reed Jr., both of whom fouled out. They countered Colorado’s efficient shooting with a 48.1% rate from the field and a 12-of-31 (38.7%) effort from long distance. Liam McNeely led the way with 20 points while shooting 4 of 6 from 3. But it wasn’t enough to overcome Colorado’s second-half rally.
Hurley got heated again when officials declined to call a loose-ball foul on Colorado on a physical offensive rebound that set up the game-winning shot.
An over-the-back call against UConn on another contested rebound was the source of Hurley’s anger against officials on Monday.
He also directly addressed the no-call at the end of Tuesday’s game.
This week was supposed to be UConn’s first test against a fellow contender in a Maui field that also features No. 4 Auburn, No. 5 Iowa State and No. 12 North Carolina. There’s still a chance to face a ranked foe if No. 5 Iowa State loses its second game of the tournament to Dayton later Tuesday. If Iowa State advances, UConn will leave Maui still in search of its first test against a top-25 team.
Colorado advances to face the winner between Iowa State and Dayton in the fifth-place game on Wednesday. UConn will face the loser.
Auburn will take on North Carolina in the semifinals of the winners’ bracket. The winner will advance to face Memphis, which beat Michigan State in the other semifinal.