2 hours Ago By By JERRY BEACH - Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Liam McNeeley scored 26 points for No. 18 UConn, which fended off a series of rallies by No. 8 Gonzaga to earn a 77-71 win in a Hall of Fame Series matchup at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
Tarris Reed Jr. scored 12 points and Jaylin Stewart added 10 for two-time defending national champion UConn (8-3) for coach Dan Hurley's 300th win. Khalif Battle had 21 points, Ryan Nembhard finished with 16 points and Michael Ajayi added 14 points for Gonzaga (7-3), which fell to 2-6 all-time against UConn.
UConn opened the game on a 13-2 run and led 43-40 at the half. Gonzaga tied the game at 55 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Battle and Nembhard before the Huskies scored the next 10 points. The Bulldogs got within 73-70 on an old-fashioned 3-point play by Ajayi with 3:25 left, but Nembhard missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer before Alex Karaban hit a layup as the shot clock expired with a minute left.
Gonzaga: The Bulldogs, who fell to then-No. 4 Kentucky 90-89 in overtime on Dec. 7, have lost two straight games for the first time since Dec.
9-15, 2018. UConn: Samson Johnson exited with 11:09 left in the first half after he hit the floor hard while trying to block a layup by Battle. Stewart scored five straight points out of a UConn timeout to spark the Huskies’ decisive 10-0 run.
Gonzaga shot 35.5% in the second half, when the Bulldogs missed six layups or short point-blank jumpers. UConn opens Big East play Wednesday by hosting Xavier in Hartford.
Gonzaga also returns home Wednesday, when the Bulldogs play Nicholls State. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here .
AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball.
