Hunt scores career-high 23, key FTs as SMU tops Uconn 79-75

DALLAS (AP) — Feron Hunt scored a career-high 23 points and was 4-for-4 at the free throw line in the last 16 seconds as SMU held off UConn 79-75 Wednesday night.

Hunt scored double his season average going 8-for-9 from the floor with a pair of 3-pointers and seven rebounds. Kendric Davis added 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting with six assists, Emmanuel Bandoumel scored 13 points with six rebounds and three steals as the Mustangs (17-6, 7-4 American Athletic Conference) shot 55% as a team (28-for-51).

James Bouknigh scored 21 points to pace UConn (13-11, 4-7), which trailed by as many as 15 after halftime before rallying to within seven points or fewer for the final six minutes.After Hunt buried a 3 that gave SMU a 59-44 lead, Bouknight scored on a drive to begin an 18-10 rally for the Huskies and he capped it five minutes later with a 3-pointer making the score 69-62.

UConn came within a basket six times down the stretch but SMU had an answer each time and Hunt sealed it from the line in the final seconds.

Jalen Gaffney added 13 points and Brendan Adams 11 for UConn.

SMU matches up against Houston at home on Saturday. UConn matches up against Memphis at home on Sunday.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com