UConn defeats Arizona

Connecticut’s star had an off night and his teammates made sure it didn’t mean a loss.

Despite sophomore forward Rudy Gay only scoring six points on 2-for-10 shooting with five turnovers, the third-ranked Huskies held No. 9 Arizona without a field goal for a 5-minute stretch of the second half in a 79-70 victory Tuesday night in the semifinals of the EA Sports Maui Invitational in Lahaina, Hawaii.

The Huskies (3-0) will meet No. 8 Gonzaga in today’s championship game. The Bulldogs (3-0) advanced with a 109-106 triple-overtime victory over No. 12 Michigan State.

Denham Brown scored 17 points for Connecticut, while freshman point guard Craig Austrie had 15 points and senior center Hilton Armstrong had a career-high 14 points and eight rebounds.

“It feels good so many guys contributed,” Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. “We, the coaching staff, to some degree, have become so reliant on Rudy and he didn’t have a particularly good evening and that happens to great players and will continue to happen.”

Arizona went 5 minutes without a field goal as Connecticut went up 67-56 on two free throws by Armstrong with 2:47 left. Hassan Adams scored to end Arizona’s field-goal drought, but Josh Boone answered with a dunk and the Wildcats were never closer than seven points the rest of the way.

“Connecticut’s quickness really hurt us right off. They were beating us down the court,” Arizona coach Lute Olson said. “We started off with lousy shots and that’s our biggest problem right now.”

(2) Texas 68, (18) Iowa 59: At Kansas City, Mo., LaMarcus Aldridge had 18 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out and helped the Longhorns erase a seven-point halftime deficit to beat the Hawkeyes in the championship game of the Guardians Classic. Point guard Daniel Gibson added 16 points for the Longhorns. Adam Haluska had 15 points at halftime for Iowa and finished with 23.

(7) Kentucky 80, (13) West Virginia 66: At Kansas City, Mo., Patrick Sparks scored 25 points and led an early 20-0 run that carried the Wildcats past the Mountaineers in the Guardians Classic consolation game.

(10) Boston College 92, Buffalo 63: At Boston, Jared Dudley scored 20 points to help the Eagles survive an off-night by preseason All-America Craig Smith and beat the Bulls. Smith had 12 points and four rebounds, missing 7 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble and 6 minutes in the second with a cut over his left eye.

(15) Illinois 93, Texas Southern 59: At Champaign, Ill., Dee Brown scored 14 points and James Augustine added 13 to lead the Illini to a rout of the Tigers. Sean Walker scored 20 points and Ike Count added 11 for Texas Southern.

Bucknell 64, (17) Syracuse 59: At Syracuse, N.Y., Kevin Bettencourt scored 20 points and keyed a late 13-2 run as the Bison rallied to defeat the Orange. Charles Lee had 18 points and Chris McNaughton had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Bison.

(23) Maryland 98, Chaminade 69: At Lahaina, Hawaii, Chris McCray scored 17 points – nine in a 23-0 run in the second half – to lead the Terrapins over the Silverswords in the consolation round of the EA Sports Maui Invitational. Maryland will play Arkansas for fifth place today.

Pacific-10 non-conference

Malik Hairston scored 17 points and Maarty Leunen had 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead Oregon past Pacific 84-62 in the final game of the Hispanic College Fund Classic in Eugene, Ore.

Oregon State 88, Prairie View 71: At Corvallis, Ore., Sasa Cuic had 19 points and eight rebounds to lead the Beavers to a win over the Panthers.

Women

Monique Currie had 21 points and 15 rebounds for her 20th career double-double, helping top-ranked Duke beat Fairfield 110-44 in Durham, N.C.

Abby Waner made her first seven shots, including two 3-pointers, and scored all 16 of her points in the first half as Duke built a 65-23 advantage.

(3) LSU 107, Southern U. 39: At Baton Rouge, La., Erica White scored 14 points and national player of the year Seimone Augustus added 10 in her lowest scoring game in two seasons as the Tigers won their home opener.

(5) Baylor 92, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 64: At Waco, Texas, Sophia Young had 20 points and 10 rebounds to help the Bears extend its winning streak to 24 games.

(20) Vanderbilt 80, Alabama A&M 29: At Nashville, Tenn., Caroline Williams scored a career-high 19 points and the Commodores raced to an 18-0 lead in its win over the Bulldogs.

(21) Temple 72, Penn 53: At Philadelphia, Khadija Bowens scored 21 points and Candice Dupree added 17 to help the Owls to their 28th straight regular-season victory.