Solo Ball scored 24 points to lead No. 6 UConn to a hard-fought 80-70 Big East victory over Butler in Indianapolis on Wednesday night.
Tarris Reed Jr. added 16 points along with 10 boards and seven assists for UConn (23-2, 13-1 Big East), who bounced back from its first loss in nearly three months. Braylon Mullins added 15 points and Silas Demary Jr. scored 11 with 10 assists as the Huskes shot 50.8% from the field.
Drayton Jones scored 15 points to lead Butler (13-12, 4-10), which has lost five in a row. Yohan Traore added 14 with five boards while Evan Haywood scored 12.
In a fascinating first half, Butler competed with the Huskies and went into the break down just three despite a lack of scoring from their top two players in Finley Bizjack and Michael Ajayi, who each had just two points in the half.
Butler shot 53.8% from the floor in the half, including 4 of 10 from deep. The Bulldogs scored 13 points off seven UConn turnovers. The Huskies outrebounded Butler 17-11 and scored 14 second-chance points to lead 41-38 at the half.
The game was a homecoming for Mullins, a Greenfield, Ind., native who won the state’s Mr. Basketball award a year ago. He scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half to lead UConn.
UConn’s defense tightened up to start the second half as the Huskies shot out to an eight-point lead five minutes into the half.
Butler never quit, bringing the deficit down to two with just under seven minutes to go.
UConn responded with a 10-0 run to go back up by double-digits at the final media timeout and handled things from that point. The Huskies hit four straight shots and prevented Butler from scoring for nearly four minutes.
Bizjack, who finished with five points, exited in pain while holding his wrist after he landed hard on a layup attempt late in the second half. He did not return for the final four minutes and joins a lengthy injury list for Butler.
