By Stephen Ur –
The UConn men’s basketball team faced off against Xavier in the Big East tournament quarterfinal at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan on Thursday night. The Huskies were looking to punch their ticket to the semifinal on Friday.
Xavier jumped on the second-ranked team early as they got out to a 10-0 lead three minutes into the first half. UConn would bounce back and went on a 11-0 run of their own and took their first lead at the 13:45 mark of the first half. The remainder of the first half was evenly matched, and UConn led 34-33 at the break.
The second half was a different story for both teams. UConn took the game over in the latter half of the game en route to a blowout victory, defeating Xavier 87-60. Tristan Newton led the way for the Huskies, scoring 13 points on 5 of 10 shooting.
UConn will take on St John’s in the Big East semifinal tomorrow night. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m. ET.