LAHAINA, Hawaii — 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 national champion 73-72 on Tuesday.
A day after a 99-97 overtime loss to Memphis that left Huskies coach Dan Hurley livid about the officiating, UConn (4-2) couldn’t shake the unranked Buffaloes (5-1), who shot 62.5% in the second half.
The Huskies led 40-32 at halftime and by nine points early in the second half, but Colorado quickly closed that gap.
With Colorado trailing 72-71 in the closing seconds, Jakimovski drove to his right and absorbed contact from UConn’s Liam McNeeley. He tossed the ball toward the glass and the shot was good as he fell to the floor. Hassan Diarra missed a 3-pointer just ahead of the buzzer for UConn.
“At halftime, I felt like we were going to do what we do at UConn, which would be get it to double figures and then surge in that game, and it just didn’t happen for us,” Hurley said, adding that it has been “a tough two days” for the Huskies. “But it’s early, and we’re going to have a lot of chances to get these ones that we’ve given away. We got a lot of chances to get these back.
McNeeley led UConn with 20 points.
Elijah Malone and Julian Hammond III scored 16 points each for Colorado, and Jakimovski had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
UConn is the fifth ranked team in AP Poll history to lose by two points or fewer on consecutive days and the first since Michigan dropped one-point games to UTEP and Texas Tech in December 1983, according to ESPN Research.
Takeaways
UConn: Hurley’s squad is facing its first adversity in quite a while. The Huskies arrived on Maui with a 17-game winning streak that dated to February.
Colorado: The Buffaloes were held to 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.
Hurley called timeout to set up the Huskies’ final possession, but the Buffs forced them to take a contested 3.
Colorado had a 28-26 rebounding advantage after being outrebounded 42-29 by Michigan State.
Colorado will play Iowa State, an 89-84 winner over Dayton, in the fifth-place game Wednesday. UConn will play the Flyers in the seventh-place game.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
