Enoch Cheeks scored eight of his 20 points during a critical stretch late in the second half on Wednesday as Dayton sent two-time defending national champion and second-ranked UConn to an 0-3 finish at the Maui Invitational with an 85-67 romp in the seventh-place game at Lahaina, Hawaii.
The Flyers (6-2) went on a 7-0 run, capped when Javon Bennett found Cheeks open in transition for a 3-pointer that extended Dayton’s lead to 69-57 with 4:27 to go.
Alex Karaban scored two of his game-high 21 points on the ensuing Huskies possession, but Dayton came right back with Posh Alexander feeding Cheeks on a lob pass.
Cheeks was fouled as he dunked home the alley-oop, then completed the three-point play. After a Samson Johnson dunk on the other end, Nate Santos knocked down a 3-pointer, and Cheeks completed his pivotal outburst by sinking a jump shot off one of Alexander’s six assists.
The sequence blew the game open, giving the Flyers a win they took losses by two points to No. 12 North Carolina and five points to No. 5 Iowa State during their previous two games in the Maui Invitational.
UConn (4-3) entered the event with a 17-game winning streak but came up short by two points in overtime against Memphis and by one point against Colorado. The three losses in Maui equal the total number of defeats the Huskies took in the 2023-24 season.
Four players scored in double figures to buoy the Dayton offense. Santos finished with 18 points, Alexander scored 16 off the bench, and Zed Key added 15. Dayton shot 8-for-17 from 3-point range and an outstanding 27-for-30 from the free-throw line.
UConn went just 8-for-29 from 3-point distance and 7-for-11 at the free-throw line. Fifteen of Karaban’s 21 coming in the first half. Johnson finished with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor, while Ball and Hassan Diarra each added 10 points.
–Field Level Media
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