No. 2 UConn finishes last at Maui Invitational after loss to Dayton

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Enoch Cheeks scored 20 points to lead Dayton to an 85-67 win over No. 2 UConn in the seventh-place game of the Maui Invitational on Wednesday night.

The Flyers (6-2) got 18 points from Nate Santos, 16 from Posh Alexander and 15 from Zed Key, who also led the team with nine rebounds.

Cheeks shot 8 of 12 from the field including 3 of 5 from 3-point range.

Alex Karaban made four of his team’s eight 3-pointers and scored 15 of his team-high 21 points in the first half to lead the Huskies (4-3), who lost all three games they played at the tournament.

A day after he scored a career-best 20 points against Colorado, Liam McNeeley went scoreless on 0-for-9 shooting against the Flyers.

Karaban hit a 3-pointer that put UConn ahead 30-27 with 4:34 left before halftime, but Dayton closed out the first half on a 15-4 run to take a 41-34 halftime lead.

Takeaways

UConn: All three of the Huskies’ losses on Maui came against unranked teams. They dropped their first two games — against Memphis on Monday and Colorado on Tuesday — by a combined three points.

Dayton: The Flyers made 27 of 30 free throws and shot better than 47% from behind the arc (8 of 17). They went 25 of 50 from the field overall.

Key moment

UConn got within 52-49 on Solo Ball's bucket in transition at the 11:20 mark of the second half, but Dayton found some separation with Alexander’s three-point play that stretched it back to a six-point lead with 10:34 to play.

Key stat

Dayton finished plus-16 in rebounding margin, including a 32-17 advantage on the defensive glass.

Up next

UConn hosts Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday, while Dayton plays host to Western Michigan on Tuesday night.

___

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.