Xavier tops No. 19 UConn in front of charged-up home crowd

Dante Maddox Jr. poured in 14 points, including three 3-pointers, to lead the Xavier Musketeers to a 76-72 win over the 19th-ranked UConn Huskies in a highly charged Big East contest Saturday night in Cincinnati.Dailyn Swain added 15 points and Zach Freemantle converted a key three-point play with 2:10 left and also finished with 15 points for Xavier (13-8, 5-5), which bounced back after blowing a 19-point lead in a road loss at St. John’s three days earlier.Solo Ball had a game-high 20 and Aidan Mahaney had 14 to lead UConn (14-6, 6-3), which has alternated wins and losses in its last six games.After they battled in a tense overtime game won by the Huskies, 94-89, on Dec. 18 in Hartford, the two teams played another back-and-forth, tightly contested game Saturday.After voicing complaints about officiating and his televised outbursts following UConn’s OT escape Tuesday against Butler, UConn coach Dan Hurley was the subject of jeers and profane taunts from the start from an energized Xavier crowd.Ball drew a foul from Marcus Foster while shooting a three with 1:29 remaining. Ball made all three free throws to cut Xavier’s lead to 74-72. After a defensive stop, Ball missed an open three with 25 seconds left, with the Huskies grabbing the offensive rebound. But Jayden Ross dribbled out the shot clock with 5.9 seconds left before Foster drilled two free throws to ice the game.