NEW YORK — Donavan Clingan scored 11 of his 13 points after halftime as No. 2 UConn recovered from a slow start and asserted its will in an 87-60 victory over ninth-seeded Xavier on Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament.
After winning a league-record 18 games and winning the regular-season title by four games, the Huskies (29-3) gave up the game’s first 10 points before getting the lead for good late in the first half.
Seeded first in the tournament for the first time since 2006, UConn awaits the winner of fourth-seeded Seton Hall versus fifth-seeded St. John’s in the first semifinal on Friday.
Tristen Newton also scored 13 points for the Huskies, who outscored Xavier 53-27 in the final 20 minutes. Alex Karaban, Cam Spencer and Samson Johnson added 12 points apiece and Stephon Castle contributed 10 as the Huskies shot 58.3 percent overall and scored 54 points in the paint.
Xavier (16-17) finished with a losing record for the first time since 1995-96, when it was in its first season in the Atlantic 10.
Quincy Olivari led the Musketeers with 17 points and Desmond Claude added 13 after getting 26 in Thursday’s four-point win over Butler. The duo combined to make 11-of-31 attempts from the floor as Xavier shot 28.1 percent in the second half and matched a season low by shooting 34.4 percent overall.
Olivari sank two 3s as Xavier scored the game’s first 10 points. UConn roared back with 13 straight points, capped by a drive to the rim by Karaban with 13:15 left.
Xavier countered UConn’s initial run and took a 20-14 lead with 10:14 remaining on a hoop by Olivari, and the Huskies missed nine straight shots until Johnson’s dunk put them ahead 23-22 with 5:03 left. Spencer’s 3 with 10 seconds left gave UConn a 3-point lead and Dayvion McKnight’s layup rolled in at the buzzer to make it 34-33 by halftime.
The Huskies opened their first double-digit lead when Newton connected with Johnson for an uncontested alley-oop dunk to make it 52-42 with 11:09 left. Clingan scored nine straight UConn points and his dunk pushed the lead to 66-49 with 5:38 left before Castle’s basket capped a 13-0 run to make it 75-49 with 3:42 left to go.
–Larry Fleisher, Field Level Media