A.J. Price hit 5 of 8 3-pointers and scored 22 points and the fifth-ranked Huskies flexed their muscles down the stretch to beat Cincinnati 81-72 on Saturday night.
The Huskies (14-1, 3-1 Big East) improved to 7-0 on the road while shooting 58 percent from the field. Jeff Adrien added 13 points and 12 rebounds and Jerome Dyson had 12 points.
Deonta Vaughn scored 19 points, Mike Williams 14 and Yancy Gates 12 for Cincinnati (10-6, 0-3), which has lost four in a row on the heels of a four-game winning streak. The Bearcats had been booed off the floor in an 87-79 home loss to Providence on Wednesday night, but they fought on relatively even terms with the Huskies.
Connecticut has won three in a row since sustaining its only loss, 74-63 at home to Georgetown, in the conference opener on Dec. 29.
This game was nothing like the last meeting between the teams. The Huskies won last March at home, 96-51, in the most lopsided Big East game ever. Cincinnati has never beaten the Huskies in five meetings.
Up four at the half, the Huskies used an 8-2 run to build their advantage to 55-46 on Dyson's long 3 from in front of coach Jim Calhoun with 12:01 left.
But Cincinnati came back with scores on its next three possessions -- Rashad Bishop converting a blocked shot, Gates making a short jumper and Dion Dixon hitting a reverse layup off an assist from Vaughn -- to winnow the lead back to three points.
Sports
The Huskies stretched the margin to seven again when Stanley Robinson dunked off an alley-oop pass from Price -- who had five assists -- before Hasheem Thabeet jammed in an assist frm Dyson.
Cincinnati kept applying pressure but could never pull even.
Clinging to a 61-56 lead, the Huskies finally gained some breathing room on Price's perimeter jumper and, after a miss, Kemba Walker's end-to-end drive for a layup and a 65-56 lead with 6½ minutes left.
Price then hit a fallaway 3 from the left corner for a 12-point lead, all but putting the game out of reach.
Cincinnati never led and Connecticut was never up by more than six points in a physical opening half, the teams frequently trading body blows whenever anyone drove to the basket.
The Bearcats pulled even on two Gates free throws at the 3:53 mark and a Larry Davis 3-pointer tied it again at 30 a minute later.
The Huskies eventually built a 38-34 lead at the break thanks to two high-arching 3-pointers by Price over defenders' hands in the final minute. He hit his third 3 of the half with a second left.
During a loose ball with just over 3 minutes left in the half, Adrien came up with a loose ball in a pileup near midcourt and threw a hard elbow that never connected. That was enough to inflame the crowd at Fifth Third Arena.
Price had 13 for the Huskies and Williams and Vaughn each had 10 for the Bearcats in the first 20 minutes. Vaughn, Cincinnati's leading scorer at 14.5 points a game, didn't score in the final 8:29, however.
The Huskies hit half of their eight shots behind the arc in the opening half and finished 8 of 15.
They improved to 12-0 this season when leading at the half.
