HARTFORD, Conn. – The Sacred Heart men's basketball team held an 11-point first half lead in an 82-49 loss at Connecticut on Wednesday night at the XL Center. Jordan Allen led the Pioneers, who are now 1-4, with 18 points, one shy of a game-high. The Huskies snapped a two game skid to move to 5-2.

SHU scored the first seven points of the game, four of which were by Allen, holding Connecticut scoreless for the first 3:37. After UConn hit a three-pointer to pull within three, 9-6, Broome answered with a three at the 13:29 mark for a 12-6 lead, and the Pioneers would lead by at least five for the next 7:55 until a Huskie free throw with 5:34 remaining. Twice during that stretch SHU held the 11-point lead. First following a Quincy McKnight trifecta to make it 23-12 with 9:03 left and again on its next trip down the floor when Filip Nowicki made a layup with 8:28 showing.

After that layup, Connecticut closed the half on a 27-2 run to take a 41-27 lead into the break, as SHU would shoot just 1-9 from the floor and 0-2 from the free throw line in the span. It began with 16 unanswered over the next 5:20, with Amida Brimah's free throw with 3:06 on the clock pusing the UConn lead to 30-25. McKnight answered with a layup on the next trip down the floor to momentarily cut the deficit to three, but the Huskies would score the final 11 points of the half capped by a Sterling Gibbs triple just 48 second before the buzzer.

Sacred Heart came out of halftime once again holding Connecticut scoreless for an extended period, this time for the first 3:29, to briefly cut the lead back to single digits when an Allen free throw with 17:15 remaining brought the score to 41-32. Less than a minute later, Daniel Hamilton converted a layup to extend the advantage back to double digits, igniting 18 unanswered over the next five minutes for the Huskies, as SHU would not score until an Allen layup at the 11:32 mark.

Allen made 7-14 from the field en route to his 18 points, which were a new season-high. The only other Pioneer in double figures was Quincy McKnight, who had 11, as SHU shot just 29.2 percent from the field with UConn blocking 12 shots. The Huskies shot 52.5 percent from the field, while outrebounding the Pioneers 47-36 and holding a 48-24 edge in the paint.

Hamilton finished with a double double of 14 points and game-highs of 13 rebounds and seven assists for Connecticut. Rodney Purvis led four Huskies in double figures with 19 points. Shonn Miller and Brimah each had ten.

SHU will look to snap its current four game losing streak at Towson on Saturday at 2 pm.

Noteworthy

• Sacred Heart led the game for 14:55
• UConn's 52.5 percent shooting snapped a streak of nine straight games in which SHU has held the opponent below fifty percent

Inside the Numbers

• Despite getting outrebounded by 11, Sacred Heart held a 17-12 advantage in second chance points, as the Pioneers had a season-high 19 offensive rebounds to Connecticut's 12
• Both teams made four threes despite SHU having nine more attempts, 21-12
• The UConn bench outscored the Pioneer bench 20-5
• Sacred Heart shot just 46.7 (7-15) from the free throw line, while Connecticut made 16-21 (76.2 percent)