LAWRENCE, Kansas – Tristen Newton, leading into Friday’s matchup with No. 5 Kansas, expressed how much he loves road games. “Taking the joy,” as he put it Wednesday, was nearly impossible in the Jayhawks’ historic Allen Fieldhouse.
UConn was one shot away from pulling it off. The Huskies trailed for 33 minutes and 44 seconds but, thanks to Newton’s 31 points, had a chance to tie the game with a layup in the final 10 seconds. The graduate point guard passed the ball off to a hobbled Cam Spencer for a potential game-winner from 3 but it missed off the rim.
Kansas (7-1) sealed the game with a pair of free throws, 69-65, in a battle between the last two national champions that certainly lived up to the hype.
The crowd noise in the sold-out arena acted as a sixth, maybe even seventh Jayhawks’ defender for nearly the entire game. UConn (7-1) struggled to run its sets as 7-foot-2 All-American Hunter Dickinson served as a massive roadblock clogging the lane, forcing the Huskies to spend most of their time looking for shots around the perimeter.
Dickinson finished with 15, K.J. Adams had 18 and Kevin McCullar Jr. scored 11 points in the second half and led the Jayhawks with 21 on 6 of 10 shooting.
“I wish we would’ve played better,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said. “Credit their team for that, credit the environment. It really knocked us on our heels. We don’t go to many places this organized with fan involvement, so it was a heck of an environment and I think it rattled us for awhile.”
But Newton, who starred in front of a mixed crowd of 75,000 in last year’s national championship game, kept the Huskies from drowning with a game-high 16 points at halftime on 4 of 5 shooting from 3-point range. He finished shooting 10 of 18 from the field, 6 of 9 from beyond the arc. His 31 points were the most he’s scored in a UConn uniform; his career-high, 32, came against Tulane in his final season at East Carolina.
“Tristen carried us tonight. That was a virtuoso performance,” Hurley said. “I thought the program and our guys showed a champion’s heart by putting us in position to have a 3 to steal it and get out of here with a win.”
Alex Karaban fouled out with less than two minutes left; he was second on the team with 10 points on 4 of 11 shooting. Spencer, who came into the game with a foot injury and aggravated his other foot early on, gutted his way through 36 minutes but couldn’t get his shot to fall, finishing 2 of…
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