Huskies get blown out by Mustangs

DALLAS >> Injuries? No doubt. Even a new one on Thursday night.

Facing a very good team in a building where it almost never loses? Yup, tough task for UConn.

Still, there was no excuse for this.

SMU dominated UConn so thoroughly on Thursday at Moody Coliseum, it made the Mustangs’ prior two wins over the Huskies in this building — by a combined 44 points — look like relative nailbiters. Heck, it made the UConn women’s team’s record 91st straight victory, accomplished on this same floor five days earlier, seem competitive (OK, that may be an exaggeration). The Mustangs ran, dunked and

shot over UConn to the tune of a 69-49 victory. It’s hard to know where even to start: SMU had 22 assists against just five turnovers. UConn leading scorer Jalen Adams was 1-for-10 for a season-low three points. Rodney Purvis didn’t make a field goal and had two points. Amida Brimah was dogged by foul trouble yet again (including an unnecessary technical) and had just two points.

UConn is 7-11 overall, and 2-4 in the AAC. Seven and eleven.

SMU (16-4, 6-1) was led by Shake Milton’s 23 points. Semi Ojeleye added 17 points and Ben Moore had 14 points and 13 rebounds.

For UConn, freshman Vance Jackson made five second-half 3-pointers and finished with 17 points, while Kentan Facey notched his fifth career double-double (13 points, 10 boards).

UConn, already without two of its three best players for the rest of the season, was down another man on Thursday. Steve Enoch, the 6-foot-11 sophomore forward, was suffering from a stress reaction in his right foot and watched the game from the bench, a walking boot on his foot. Heck, even 6-8 walk-on Christian Foxen, who may have been pressed into duty otherwise, was a late scratch due to a pinched nerve in his back. It hardly mattered. The Huskies hung with SMU for the first 10 minutes, and it was a 10-10 game until an Ojeleye 3-pointer kicked off a 10-0 Mustang run. Early in that run, Brimah was called for an offensive foul, his second. Upset at the call, the 7-foot senior center fired the ball against the backboard, drawing a technical — and his third foul, with 9:22 left in the half.

He sat out the rest of the half, simply something the already undermanned Huskies couldn’t afford.

Christian Vital hit a corner 3-pointer to get the Huskies within 20-15 with 5:28 left in the half. Those would be UConn’s final three points of the half.