University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
East Texas A&M
#5 UConn Hosts East Texas A&M on Friday
12/4/2025 4:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
STORRS – The No. 5 UConn men's basketball team (7-1) returns home on Friday night to welcome East Texas A&M (4-3) to Gampel Pavilion. The contest will tip at 7:30 p.m. and air on Peacock and NBCSN with John Fanta and Donny Marshall on the call.
The Huskies are hosting the Lions in Storrs for the second-straight season, signifying the lone two all-time meetings between the programs. The meeting a year ago came on Nov. 19, 2024, an 81-46 win for the Huskies. Solo Ball led four in double-figures for Connecticut and the Huskies held ETAMU to a paltry 25.4 percent from the field while shooting 54.2 percent themselves.
UConn is coming off a massive road win on Tuesday, earning the program's first win over Kansas with a rare victory in Lawrence. The win snapped KU's 23-game home non-conference winning streak and was only the seventh loss for the Jayhawks since 2003-04, a span encompassing 169 games.
Solo Ball and Braylon Mullins led all scorers with 17 points apiece at Allen Fieldhouse, with Mullins adding five rebounds and a steal in 23 minutes off the bench in only his second career game. The Huskies rebounded from a four-point halftime deficit and took a lead at 10:47 thanks to a personal 7-0 Alex Karaban run, an advantage they were able to hold on to the rest of the way. UConn limited Kansas to 25.0 percent shooting in the second half and forced Kansas to miss seven of its final eight shots to secure the win.
The defensive effort boosted UConn's Kenpom defensive efficiency on the year to No. 7 in the country. The Huskies are top-10 nationally in scoring defense, effective field goal percentage against, assists/FGM against and block rate.
Offensively among qualified scorers, UConn is led by Ball with 14.6 points per game followed closely by Karaban at 13.8 per game. Silas Demary Jr. is the third Husky to average double-digits, pumping in 10.8 points and dishing out a team-best 5.6 assists per game. Eric Reibe has started three of UConn's last four games and is averaging 12.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per in that span.
ETAMU is off to a 4-3 start and riding a three-game winning streak into Friday's tilt. The Lions recently won the FDU Basketball Classic, upending Fairleigh Dickinson and Army in Tenafly, N.J. Ronnie Harrison leads East Texas with 14.0 points per game, with Damian Garcia (10.8 ppg) and Vinny Sigona (10.3 ppg) joining him in double-figures.
UConn returns to action following Friday's contest on Tuesday, Dec. 9 when it heads back to the World's Most Famous Arena to take on No. 15 Florida in the Jimmy V Classic.
