SMU scores 21 late points to pull away from UConn 49-28
SMU scores game’s final 21 points after Huskies tie game in the fourth
Dallas — Ben Hicks passed for 280 yards and four touchdowns as SMU pulled away with three fourth-quarter touchdowns to beat UConn 49-28 in an American Athletic Conference game on Saturday.
The Mustangs (4-1, 1-0) took the lead for good at 35-28 on Hicks' 34-yard touchdown pass to Courtland Sutton with 11:46 left.
SMU's Ryan Becker blocked Brett Graham's punt on UConn's next possession and Ke'Mon Freeman's 3-yard run made it 42-28.
The Huskies (1-3, 0-2) then turned it over on downs deep in their own territory and Braeden West's 25-yard run capped the scoring on the next play.
"I'm disappointed that we lost," UConn coach Randy Edsall said. "I think any time you lose you're not real happy, but I thought our kids fought. What we have to do is when we get the game there in the fourth quarter as we did at 28-28, we have to find a way to finish it.
UConn trailed 21-10 at halftime but cut the deficit to one with 10-straight third-quarter points and tied it at 28 early in the fourth.
"We're going to get in that situation hopefully down the road and we have to take advantage and finish it," Edsall said. "When it gets to that point, everyone has to turn it up a notch and do that. We did a good job of fighting back and putting ourselves in a position to win the game in the fourth quarter coming on the road, but we can't make some of the mistakes we made there.
"We're not good enough to overcome those."
Bryant Shirreffs passed for 408 yards and two TDs for the Huskies but was sacked eight times. He threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to Aaron McLean that tied the game at 7-7 in the first quarter and made a perfect throw that hit Keyion Dixon in stride on the first play of the fourth quarter for a 59-yard touchdown that tied the game at 28-28.
After that, however, the Huskies managed only 14 yards over their final three series as SMU took control.
"It's all about a response," SMU coach Chad Morris said. "I'm extremely proud of this football team. This is a football game that would have been hard to win the last two years with where we were with our program. The way these young men responded today was huge. Games like this will do nothing but make us better and stronger."
McLean finished with five catches for 122 yards while Dixon had four for 84. Trey Quinn caught 15 passes for 116 yards and two TDs and Sutton finished with seven catches for 112 yards and two scores for SMU.
"I want to give credit to Coach Edsall and his UConn team," Morris said. "He's building a program. They're getting better every week. I know what he's going through. We've gone through it. They played extremely hard, and I knew they would."
UConn has a short week to get ready for its next game when Memphis visits Rentschler Field on Friday night at 7 for a nationally-televised game (ESPN). The Tigers (3-1, 0-1) suffered their first loss of the season to Central Florida on Saturday, 40-13.