Alex Karaban returned from a head injury to score 21 points and grab 11 rebounds as No. 25 UConn beat Texas 76-65 Sunday in Austin, Texas.
Karaban sustained a head injury during UConn’s final game in the Maui Invitational. He did not play in UConn’s next two games while he was in concussion protocol.
Solo Ball added 16 points for the Huskies (7-3), who received 12 points from both Samson Johnson and Tarris Reed Jr. Liam McNeeley finished the game with seven points and nine rebounds, and Hassan Diarra had a career-high 11 assists.
Freshman Tre Johnson scored a game-high 24 points for the Longhorns (7-2), who entered the contest on a seven-game winning streak. He scored 18 points in the second half.
Arthur Kaluma had 20 points and nine rebounds, but no other Texas player scored more than six points.
UConn made 9 of 20 3-point attempts in the win. Ball had four 3-pointers and Karaban finished with three.
Texas shot 42.0 percent from the field (21 of 50) to UConn’s 51.9 percent (28 of 54), and the Longhorns missed nine of their 24 free-throw attempts.
UConn had its first double-digit lead when Reed scored to put the Huskies in front 17-6 with 12:42 remaining in the first half. The lead grew to 38-18 when McNeeley made a 3-pointer with 2:50 left in the half, and to 40-18 on a Karaban dunk 36 seconds later. UConn led 42-24 after 20 minutes.
UConn shot 14-for-26 in the opening half and Texas went just 8-for-26. Karaban had 14 points and eight rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.
Tre Johnson drilled a 3-pointer to bring Texas within 60-48 with 13:16 to play, and another Johnson 3-pointer made it a 62-52 game with 9:47 left. But the Longhorns failed to trim their deficit to single digits until a Kaluma 3-pointer sliced UConn’s advantage to eight points with 1:15 left.
–Field Level Media
