MAUI, Hawaii – The No. 2-ranked UConn men’s basketball team dropped an overtime thriller, 99-97, to Memphis to open the Maui Invitational at the historic Lahaina Civic Center on Monday.

The Huskies trailed by 12 with three minutes left in regulation, but freshman Liam McNeeley led a comeback effort and Solo Ball nailed a 3-pointer with a fraction of a second left, sending the game to overtime. During the overtime period, coach Dan Hurley dramatically fell to the floor and was called for a costly technical foul with 40 seconds left as he disagreed with an over-the-back foul against McNeeley. The Tigers took advantage and went up four.

Hassan Diarra scored eight points for the Huskies in overtime, but was forced to heave a shot at the buzzer that was off the mark.

“Credit Memphis, I mean, that must’ve been an awesome game to watch,” Hurley said to open his post-game press conference. “I’ve played against a lot of Penny (Hardaway’s) teams, I think this is the best team that I’ve seen that Penny’s had. Much respect to those guys. Tyrese Hunter (26 points) was awesome out there … They’re an underrated team.”

Hardaway said the win was the biggest of his coaching career.

The loss was UConn’s first since Feb. 20 at Creighton, 279 days ago.

UConn falls to 4-1 on the season and 9-4 all-time in the Maui Invitational. It snapped the nation’s longest winning streak –17 games – which dated back to last season.

“Everyone’s disappointed, and if you’re not disappointed in that locker room you shouldn’t be here,” said Alex Karaban, who finished with 19 points, four rebounds and six assists. “We lost, and losing anything doesn’t sit well with anybody. Yeah, we showed fight at the end, but it doesn’t matter because we didn’t win.”

The tone was set early as center Samson Johnson (two points) collected his first foul about 20 seconds in. It took only four minutes for the first technical to be called against a surprising member of UConn’s bench: athletic trainer James Doran.

“A trainer who is just the nicest guy, very quiet guy, might’ve muttered something under his breath,” Hurley said. “In a normal situation, an official comes over to you and says, ‘Hey Coach, tell that guy to shut up.’ That’s commonly how that should’ve been handled, but I had a lot of issues with what went on out there.”

On his own technical foul, the more damaging one in overtime, Hurley explained: “There was no attempt to block out. There was a player on Memphis that made a half-ass effort to rebound that basketball and Liam McNeeley high-pointed that rebound. For that call to be made at that point of the game was a complete joke. For me (falling), I don’t know what happened. I might’ve lost my balance by the absurdity of the call, or maybe I tripped. But if I made that call at that point, I would’ve ignored the fact that I was on my back.”

Johnson, McNeeley and Ball picked up two fouls a piece midway through the opening half and UConn finished the game with 29 total fouls, giving Memphis 40 free throw attempts. The Huskies’ starters combined for just 11 points in the first half.

Off the bench, Tarris Reed Jr. (22 points, 11 rebounds) and Jaylin Stewart (16 points, five rebounds) carried the Huskies and kept pace with Memphis on their own.

The Tigers finished the game shooting 54.7% from the field and 12 for 22 from beyond the arc.

Stewart, only averaging 2.8 points through UConn’s first four games, made a 3-pointer and scored seven consecutive points, dunking to tie the game before Reed slammed another to take the lead. The duo combined to score UConn’s final 22 points of the half, enough to knot the halftime score at 40.

But UConn’s offense couldn’t keep up in the second half.

Ball hit an early 3-pointer, but it was more than four scoreless minutes before Karaban made his third triple of the game to quell a 5-0 Memphis run. Stewart reentered and almost immediately slammed a putback dunk off a McNeeley miss with 14 minutes to go, tying the game at 48.

Stewart only played four minutes in the second half and didn’t score again, finishing the game with 16 points and five boards.

“He looked a little skittish,” Hurley said. “He was great in that first half. His first run (in the second) he kind of looked like he was a little bit out of rhythm, a little bit on his heels.”

The Huskies started the second half just 3 for 10 from the field in the second half before Hunter and Mahaney traded triples and Karaban was fouled on a 3-point attempt, hitting all three free throws to tie the score for the 11th time. But the shots didn’t stop falling for Memphis.

Hunter, the Texas transfer who went 7 for 10 from beyond the arc, hit a 3-pointer from the corner while drawing the fourth foul on Mahaney. He was good again from beyond the arc 30 seconds later, pushing Memphis’ lead to 10 points with 8:09 left in regulation.

The deficit was 13 before Karaban’s fourth triple with 3:37 left. Reed dunked twice to keep the score from getting out of hand, but he fouled out with about three minutes to go.

McNeeley, who had just two points through the game’s first 37 and a half minutes, nailed back-to-back 3-pointers and cut it to four with 1:38 left in regulation. The Huskies forced a turnover down three with 14 seconds left, and Diarra found Ball to send the game to overtime with a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

Only two different players – PJ Carter and Colby Rogers – scored in the extra period for Memphis.

Johnson was whistled for a technical after shoving Moussa Cisse to the floor and then exchanging heated words with Dain Dainga. He had four fouls at the time, and fouled out after the double-tech was called on he and Dainga. With 13 seconds left in the OT period, Ball became the third Husky to foul out.

“Samson was getting shoved. I mean, his jersey was ripped, he didn’t get a foul called for him the entire game. He ended the game with his jersey ripped down the center, but they get him on every call,” Hurley said. “That was crazy.”

UConn will meet the loser of Game 2 between Colorado and Michigan State at 3:30 p.m. ET (10:30 a.m. local) on Tuesday.

“It’s on my shoulders completely, 100% on my shoulders,” Karaban said. “How the team responds, how the team acts, how we watch film, how we do everything in general – it’s all on me and I gotta continue to do a better job of that. I’m gonna address the team after in a players’ meeting just to make sure that– we’ve got to wake up.”

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