HARTFORD, Conn. – The Lafayette men's basketball team played under the bright lights in front of almost 7,000 at the XL Center on Wednesday evening in Hartford, Conn., falling to Connecticut by a 90-63 score.

The American Athletic Conference member, entering the game at 6-2 on the year, proved too tough for the Maroon and White, dropping Lafayette to 2-6 on the young season. The Leopards suffered through another tough offensive night, making just 5-of-23 from beyond the arc (21.7%) and 23-of-62 overall (37.1%).

Senior co-captain Paulius Zalys backed up a solid performance against Sacred Heart with another dependable effort on Wednesday, leading the team in scoring and rebounds with 13 and six, respectively. Sophomore Dylan Hastings was another bright spot, finishing one point off his career-high with 11 as the other Leopard in double figures.

UConn controlled the glass with 17 offensive rebounds, leading to 17 second-chance points. The Huskies were led by Jalen Adams with a game-high 21 points, while Tyler Polley, Christian Vital, Josh Carlton and Brendan Adams chipped in with 16, 14, 11 and 11, each.

The home side came out with a blitz, scoring the game's first eight points but a Justin Jaworski triple followed by an E.J. Stephens jumper helped to settle the Leopards in, trailing 11-5 through the first four minutes. Free throws from Hastings and a triple from Zalys brought Lafayette within three, but a Jalen Adams three on the other end kept the Leopards at bay, leading 18-12 at the 11:46 mark of the first.

Freshman Sean Good's put-back on the following possession put it at 18-14, but the Huskies rattled off nine straight to push their lead to 13, 27-14, at the under-eight timeout. Lafayette was able to slow down the run as five from Hastings over a two-minute stretch made it 34-22 with 5:14 left, but UConn closed the half on an 11-7 spurt to lead into the break, 45-29.

Two turnovers led to run-out layups, forcing a quick timeout to open the second stanza, but that didn't stop UConn from rolling out of the break with 16 of the first 20 points to lead 61-33 with 15:31 to play. Lafayette answered with an 8-4 spurt at the 11:39 mark as sophomore Alex Petrie's jumper made it 63-39.

A three from junior Kyle Stout in transition off a feed from Jaworski at 8:59 made it 69-44, but two more triples, the 11^th and 12^th of the day for the home side, pushed the advantage back out, leading 77-46 with 7:52 to go. Lafayette and UConn traded buckets down the stretch as a mini 6-2 run with four from Stephens made it 85-56 with 3:28 left, but the deficit was too much to overcome in the end as the buzzer sounded on a 90-63 final.

Lafayette returns to the state of Connecticut on Saturday for its next contest, a 2 p.m. clash at Quinnipiac.