The No. 3 UConn men’s basketball team (4-1) suffered its first loss of the season, falling to No. 4 Arizona (5-0), 71-67.
Tarris Reed Jr. was ruled out for the Huskies after suffering an ankle injury late in Saturday’s win over BYU. That provided a tall task for Eric Reibe against Motiejus Krivas. Reibe’s inexperience was present early, allowing Krivas to reach a career-high 10 rebounds in the first half alone. Reibe could not keep Krivas off the glass but limited him to four rebounds in the second half, 14 overall. The freshman big had an incredible night with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including the first two made 3-pointers of his young career.
“I don’t think I could be prouder of Big Eric,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said. “Eric’s going to be an awesome player, and obviously the development moment for him tonight is going to do so much for his confidence.”
Because of the absence down low, UConn was killed on the glass, with Arizona holding a 43-23 rebounding advantage. That included a 13-6 offensive rebounding advantage, a 16-5 advantage in second-chance points and a dominant 42-24 effort in the paint for the Wildcats. Along with Krivas having 14 boards, freshman phenom Koa Peat had 12 rebounds.
“Tarris is one of the best rebounders in the country,” Hurley said. “There’s a lot of things that would not have went on in the game: paint defense, defensive rebounding, offensive rebounding.”
UConn’s foul trouble was prominent early, even though there was not enough depth for the Huskies. Four of UConn’s starting five committed two fouls in the first half, with Jaylin Stewart being the only one to commit only one.
Was this limited later? Yes, but Reibe ended up fouling out; Silas Demary Jr. ended up having four fouls, Alex Karaban and Dwayne Koroma each had three.
“We’ve got to clean up the fouling,” Hurley said. “Some of it, I just got to do a better job coaching these guys and being more technical when the ball gets driven.”
Brayden Burries came into the game as one of the top freshmen in the country. However, his first half was limited due to a flagrant foul committed on UConn’s first basket of the game, two turnovers and another foul 30 seconds after his flagrant foul.
The Huskies were lucky to be down 35-33 at halftime, as it could have been a lot worse for UConn. It felt like Connecticut was shooting itself in the foot, shooting just 40% from the floor, going 3-of-11 from 3-point range and shooting just 6-of-12 from the free-throw line. On top of that, the Huskies only got 1 point from their bench in the first half, coming from a free-throw from Dwayne Koroma. They ended up scoring six points off the bench in the second half.
Solo Ball scored 15 points, but his shooting does not reflect that. The junior from Leesburg, Va., shot just 5-of-14 from the floor for the game and a dismal 2-of-7 in the second half.
Reibe’s 15 points, along with Malachi Smith’s eight assists, helped the Huskies stay in the game in what was an electric atmosphere from the opening tip to the final buzzer.
The foul shooting severely hurt UConn. The Huskies were 9-of-18 from the charity stripe, with Reibe going 1-of-4, Koroma going 2-of-6 and Karaban going 3-of-5. It was not exactly the most ideal night for UConn when Demary and Smith did not get to the line.
“I think if some of our better free-throw shooters got to the line more, we would have shot a higher percentage,” Hurley said. “I think Eric eventually is going to be a real good free-throw shooter.”
UConn took the lead late in the game thanks to a layup from Jaylin Stewart with 3:02 remaining, but Arizona swung back with Peat tying the game up at 62 points with 2:43 left. Smith swung right back with a floater to go up 64-62, but the Wildcats went on an 8-3 run to close the game out.
Arizona has now won the last three meetings between the two programs, but Connecticut still holds a 5-3 lead in the all-time series. UConn assistant coach Mike Nardi has unfortunately been on the losing side in both top-5 matchups played at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.
The Huskies will look to bounce back with their penultimate buy game on Sunday against Bryant at the PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford.
This content feels like warm hug when everything else seems chaotic