No. 5 UConn men's basketball thumps East Texas A&M, 83-59

Joe Arruda, Hartford Courant on Dec 5, 2025

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STORRS, Conn. — The fifth-ranked UConn men’s basketball team took some time to warm up its engine before rolling to a 83-59 win over East Texas A&M at Gampel Pavilion on Friday night.

Sandwiched between a monster win over Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse and a rematch against reigning national champion Florida, the Huskies (8-1) had just a seven-point lead with a minute left in the first half of their final buy game of the season. But the size difference prevailed as UConn, in its fifth game without Tarris Reed Jr. (ankle), outscored the Lions, 58-22 in the paint and built its lead to as many as 27 points in the second half.

The Huskies finished with four scorers in double figures, led by a 14-point effort from Solo Ball, who added four rebounds and two assists. Freshman center Eric Reibe, towering over the Lions, had 13 points with six rebounds and three blocks, and classmate Braylon Mullins scored all 10 of his points in the second half. Alex Karaban had 12 points and six rebounds, and point guard Silas Demary Jr. added eight points, five rebounds and five assists.

It was a slow-paced game until the Huskies forced five turnovers over a three minute stretch.

Demary, falling to corral his second steal of the game, flipped the ball up to Jaylin Stewart (nine points, seven rebounds) who fired an outlet pass to a surging Ball for a massive one-handed dunk in transition. After a steal from Reibe on the next possession, Ball drove and assisted Stewart under the basket for a three-point play to give the Huskies their largest lead of the night, 29-15, with just less than seven minutes left before halftime.

But the Huskies let East Texas A&M hang around for most of the first half.

A pair of baskets from forward Ronnie Harrison (15 points, six rebounds) cut the Lions’ deficit to seven with a minute left before Ball went to the free-throw line for two and Karaban was in the right place for a second-chance layup to beat the halftime buzzer, sending UConn into the break with a 38-27 lead.

Ball pushed the lead to 16 with a 3-pointer, a crafty layup and an assist to Reibe, but the Lions answered with back-to-back 3-pointers from seventh-year guard Gianni Hunt.

UConn only attempted five 3-pointers in the first half and continued to punish the undersized Lions in the paint with four straight layups, pushing its lead back to 18 points with just under 12 minutes to play.

The lead got to 21 when Mullins scored his first points, drawing a foul on a layup off the glass. The highly-touted freshman, off of his breakout performance in the win at Kansas, heated up fast as he nailed a 3-pointer from the wing on the next possession and cut for another layup as Harrison continued to find the bottom of the net for the Lions.

Freshman Jacob Furphy made his second appearance of the season and got on the scoreboard with a layup as UConn built its lead to 27 points with just less than six minutes to play. East Texas A&M cut into its deficit with a 5-0 run before Ball put an end to it from beyond the arc, allowing coach Dan Hurley to start emptying the bench around the three-minute mark.

UConn will close nonconference play with a rematch of last year’s NCAA Tournament second round game against reigning national champion Florida in the Jimmy V Classic on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, then host a matchup with Texas at PeoplesBank Arena on Friday before beginning the Big East season.