UConn men finish strong

Huskies win to earn a rematch with Tulane in AAC tournament

New Orleans — Senior Christian Vital continued his recent scoring spree, finishing with a season-high 28 points to power UConn past Tulane 80-76 on Sunday to complete American Athletic Conference regular season play. Vital, an All-AAC first team candidate, is averaging 23.9 points in the last seven games for the Huskies, who increased their season-high winning streak to five straight.

The two teams will face off again in the opening round of the conference tournament at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas. The Huskies (19-12, 10-8) are seeded fifth while Tulane (12-18, 4-14) is a 12 seed.

It is UConn's highest seed since 2016 when it won the tournament title.

UConn staged an impressive turnaround to climb the standings, recovering from a 1-5 start in the league. The Huskies finished with a winning AAC record for the first time since the 201516 season.

For the second straight game, they rallied from a half-time deficit to pull out a victory, trailing by two at the break. They had been 0-10 when losing at intermission this season before overcoming a seven-point deficit in Thursday's win over No. 21 Houston.

While Vital led the charge, he had plenty of help from his teammates. Junior Isaiah Whaley chipped in 10 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks while sophomore Brendan Adams scored 12 points and junior Josh Carlton and redshirt junior Alterique Gilbert each scored 10. Carlton also added seven rebounds.

The Green Wave led 41-39 at halftime. Eighteen seconds into the second half, Whaley converted a three-point play and the Huskies never trailed again. UConn easily won the rebounding battle, 40-27