UConn Basketball runs away with Big East Tournament win over Xavier
After a brief five-day break, the No. 2 UConn Basketball team returned to action this Thursday. The Huskies finished their 2025-2026 regular season campaign with an excellent 27-4, 17-3 record, earning them a two seed in the Big East tournament.
While Connecticut will need to wait until next season to avenge their recent loss to Marquette, UConn squared away with No. 10 Xavier at Madison Square Garden for a Big East Tournament quarterfinals showdown. The Huskies ran away with the contest Thursday night, winning 93-68.
Connecticut’s dominant win came without junior forward Jaylin Stewart. Last week, the program announced that Stewart would not suit up for the BET.
The Huskies’ most prominent sin committed in their most recent 68-62 loss at Marquette was a lack of offensive production and shot-making. Last Saturday’s shooting from the field was, arguably, the worst it has been all year. However, the Huskies had none of that Thursday night, shooting the lights out early.
UConn quickly jumped out to a double-digit lead, and while the shot-making was great, the offensive rebounding was truly special.
Tarris Reed Jr. led the Connecticut offensive rebounding clinic, snagging four such boards. The Michigan transfer put most of these shots back up, walking away with 11 first-half points, completing a first-half double-double. Postgame, head coach Dan Hurley talked about how effective he thought Reed was and how the Michigan transfer has more in the tank.
“Tarris is the difference between us winning this tournament. Tarris is the difference between us getting to the Final Four. That combination of Tarris and Eric [Reibe], the best version of Tarris is one of the best centers in the country,” Hurley said. “What’s crazy about this fellow, is he probably played at 70 percent tonight of what he’s capable of. But that’s how talented and that’s how good he is.”
As a squad, Connecticut snagged eight offensive rebounds. UConn also outrebounded Xavier overall by a healthy 21-10 margin.
“[Offensive rebounding] opens up the whole court for us,” Reed said. “Just demoralizes the defense. Being able to guard 30 seconds, giving up an offensive rebound is so demoralizing, even for us.”
Alex Karaban had an excellent first half, recording 11 points on his own. Of the forward’s four makes, three came from downtown. Solo Ball also had a solid 10-point first half, albeit he only recorded one make from downtown. However, Ball made himself an offensive threat, going a perfect 5-5 from the charity stripe. The Huskies will need this duo firing on all cylinders for the remainder of the season because, when they are like this, Connecticut is nearly impossible to stop.
While Filip Borovicanin did a solid job at picking his spots offensively, coming away with 10 points on 4-7 shooting, the rest of the Musketeers struggled to break the UConn defense. Connecticut was winning its one-on-one matchups, and Xavier could not get many good open looks. UConn’s smothering defense meant that a once-10-point lead quickly ballooned to as much as a 22-point UConn advantage.
At the end of one half of action, UConn led by a healthy 50-30 margin.
At the start of the second half, Xavier seemingly found its legs. While their shooting from the field had much room for improvement, the Musketeers did an excellent job drawing contact and going to the line at a high level. The Huskies’ defense deteriorated a bit during the second half, getting into the double bonus before the 10-minute mark.
While Borovicanin did a solid job sustaining constant offense for the Musketeers, scoring 12 points in 16 minutes of work, he was, again, largely alone in this effort. Roddie Anderson III did have 10 points on 4-4 shooting; however, Xavier finished 9-27 from the field.
After a quick timeout, Connecticut adjusted, and the Musketeers were no longer marching to the free-throw line as they had initially. UConn’s defense was still forcing the Musketeers into tough spots offensively, and Xavier’s still could not shoot the ball at a high level.
“We had to play a little smarter. We kind of had an idea of what they were trying to do; when they got in the paint, to stay solid,” Ross told the media. “I think we’re able to make those kinds of adjustments and play well.”
Ball carried over his strong first-half offensive output into the second half. The junior guard finished with ninepoints on a trio of makes from deep. Jayden Ross also put together an excellent second half on both ends of the floor. Multiple steals led to highlight coast-to-coast slams; the junior finished Thursday night with nine points. Ross talked about how the timing of the year is a motivating factor for him.
“We’re in March, so you don’t want to look back in March knowing you could have done more. So, I’m just doing as much as I can,” Ross noted postgame.
Thursday night was a massive win for the Huskies. UConn did an excellent job of shaking off a difficult loss just days earlier and grabbed a statement win for a date in the BET Semifinals on Friday night. Connecticut will face the winner of No. 3 Villanova and No. 11 Georgetown, with the winner advancing to the Big East Tournament Finals.
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