The Huskies handed the Blue Demons their 35th Big East loss in a row.
UConn men’s basketball kicked off 2025 on a high note, taking down the DePaul Blue Demons 81-68 in Chicago.
The Huskies (11-3, 3-0 Big East) led wire-to-wire en route to their third Big East win, even though they struggled after losing star freshman Liam McNeeley to a right ankle injury early in the second half. McNeeley was ruled out of the remainder of the game and was later seen on the bench in a walking boot.
The Huskies showed no rust in the first half after a 10-day hiatus, putting together one of its best defensive halves of the season. UConn held DePaul to just 7-26 shooting in the opening 20 minutes and just two made baskets in the first ten minutes as the big men were eating early.
UConn’s offense continued to hum along as the team assisted on 14 of its 17 first-half baskets. Solo Ball scored 12 points on four threes in the final 3:15 of the first half as UConn took a 43-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.
UConn remained in control to open up the second half, but McNeeley’s injury, combined with foul trouble from Hassan Diarra, threw the Huskies into disarray and opened the door for DePaul to make things interesting with 14 minutes left to play.
DePaul capitalized on two Huskies turnovers and ripped off a 15-2 run to make it 61-52 with eight minutes to play, but UConn managed to answer with 3-pointers on its next three possessions, two from Alex Karaban and one from Ball to build the lead back up to 16. Karaban finished with 18 points on the day.
The Blue Demons would never get the Huskies’ lead back to single digits but did get the lead down to 11 once again with under three minutes to play before UConn eventually held on to win.
Ball led all scorers and tied his career high with 22 points, going 7-of-9 from deep, hitting half of the Huskies’ threes on the day (14-29 – 48.3 percent).
DePaul entered its matchup against the Huskies as one of the best and most prolific shooting teams from three in the country, but UConn’s defensive game plan kept the Blue Demons mostly in check. With extra emphasis on tight perimeter defense, the Huskies forced DePaul to pass up contested threes for other looks on offense.
The Blue Demons, who entered the game making about 12 threes per game, attempted only 12 and converted just three of them. Leading scorer Jacob Meyer was held scoreless in the first half but did add 12 points in the second to finish second on the team in scoring behind Connor Enright’s 18.
Up next, UConn returns to Gampel Pavilion to take on Providence on Sunday, Jan. 5. The game will be broadcast on NBC.