Ryan Boatright scored 18 points and had seven assists to lead UConn to a 67-60 win over UCF on Thursday.
Amida Brimah added 14 points and had four blocked shots for the Huskies (10-7, 3-2 American) who won for the first time in three games. Omar Calhoun added 11 points and Daniel Hamilton had 10 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
B.J. Taylor led UCF (9-9, 2-5) with 13 points and Justin McBride added 11. Adonys Henriquez and Daiquan Walker each chipped in with 10.
The defending national champions never trailed and led by as many as 18 points after a 19-2 first half run.
UCF fought back, cutting the lead to five points on a 3-pointer by Henriquez with 3 ½ minutes left, but UConn held on.
The Knights have now lost two in a row and three of their last four.
Boatright, who had been held out of double figures in his last two games, hit his first four shots from 3-point range and had 12 points by intermission.
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The Huskies attempted 17 shots from 3-point range in the half and hit 10 of them. They were just 1 of 3 after the break.
UConn jumped out quickly. A 3-pointer from Calhoun and a lob dunk by Brimah made it 5-0 and forced a UCF timeout a minute into the game.
Philip Nolan drew a charging foul, the 14th time he's done that this season, sparking the run that appeared to give UConn control of the game and a 36-18 lead.
But the Knights closed the half on a 15-3 run, and scored the last 10 points to close the gap to 39-33 at intermission. UCF held the Huskies without a bucket for the final 3 minutes of the half, after keeping them scoreless for a 4-minute stretch earlier.
UCF did a better job guarding the 3-point line in the second half, but that left Brimah open underneath and he converted numerous lob passes into dunks.
The Huskies had not played on campus since losing to Yale on Dec. 5. They have played at seven different arenas since then, including four home games in Hartford and another game 80 miles away in Bridgeport.
UCF came in with just one road win on the season, an overtime victory at Houston.
