UConn forward Alex Karaban was taken to a hospital with a head injury after an 85-67 loss to Dayton on Wednesday that sent the No. 2 Huskies to an 0-3 finish at the Maui Invitational .
Karaban's head hit the ground after being fouled with about two and a half minutes left. He remained in the game but was later placed in the concussion protocol and sent to the hospital for further testing.
Karaban was cleared to fly home with the rest of the team shortly before takeoff, a team spokesman said Thursday.
Karaban made four of his team's eight 3-pointers and scored 15 of his team's 21 points in the first half to lead the Huskies (4-3), who lost all three games they played in the tournament.
“When you get to a tournament like this, and it's three games in three days, things start to go wrong, there's no way to fix it because there's no time to fix it,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “You just have to deal with the situation. Obviously it was a humbling journey for the program that accomplished what we accomplished.”
The Flyers (6-2) got 20 points from Enoch Cheeks, 18 from Nate Santos, 16 from Posh Alexander and 15 from Zed Key, who also led the team with nine rebounds. Cheeks was 8 of 12 from the field, including 3 of 5 from 3-point range.
Karaban hit a 3-pointer that put UConn ahead 30-27 with 4:34 left before halftime, but Dayton closed the first half on a 14-4 run to take a 41-34 halftime lead.
UConn closed to within 52-49 on a Solo Ball basket in transition at the 11:20 mark of the second half, but Dayton found separation with a 3-point play from Alexander that stretched it back to a six-point lead. points with 10:34 left.
All three of the Huskies' losses on Maui came against unranked teams. They lost their first two games (against Memphis on Monday and Colorado on Tuesday) by a combined three points.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
