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NEW YORK - The modern cornerstones of the Connecticut Huskies’ men’s basketball program were on full display against the Villanova Wildcats in the Friday semifinals of the Big East Tournament.

They won the rebounding battle by a nine-tally margin. 

The conference’s Player of the Year, Collin Gillespie, was held to five points. 

UConn allowed the sharp-shooting Wildcats to sink only 2-of-11 from three-point range in the second half. 

Alas for the third-seeded Huskies, their fundamental display wasn’t enough to declaw Villanova.

Connecticut’s Big East Tournament journey ended in the semifinal round for the second straight season, as they were denied a date with Creighton in the conference championship round thanks to a 63-60 loss to the second-seeded Villanova at Madison Square Garden. 

The third-ranked Huskies (23-9) conjured a 15-point, 13 rebound performance from Adama Sanogo while Tyrese Martin led scorers with 19, but it wasn’t enough to keep Villanova (25-7) out of its sixth Big East Tournament final appearance since 2015.

“(We needed to) capitalize on opportunities, we need to,” Martin said following the defeat. “That team is not a team that makes a lot of mistakes. So when we get opportunities and things like that, we got to be able to convert and I feel like we didn't do that to our best of our ability tonight.”

“We rarely lose when we outrebound teams, so we stuck to our identity. Tonight, we did things we had to do, we just came up short.”

Much like their Hartford-based instant classic in February, Friday’s affair was a close game from start to finish. Neither team led by more than eight and the first 20 minutes alone featured 13 lead changes (compared to 18 total in UConn’s 71-69 on Feb. 13).

Though separation was hard to come by, Villanova went on to lead for the final 15:27 of game time after Brandon Slater’s triple from the corner. It was a shot that came with assistance from Gillespie, who assumed a facilitator’s role to the tune of 10 assists. 

Jermaine Samuels paced the Wildcats’ stat sheet with a double-double of his own at 21 points and 12 rebounds.

UConn head coach DanHurley credited Villanova for finding new sources of scoring after his Huskies held the top threats in check: another potent threat, Justin Moore, earned only six points (and was 0-for-5 from three-point range) while Calelb Daniels sank only 2-of-10. Slater, who provided the winning free throws in Villanova’s quarterfinal victory over St. John’s, picked up the slack with 15 on 5-of-8 from the field (3-of-6 from three).

“If you said to me just going into the game that we would hold Gillespie to five on only five shot attempts, Moore to six points on 3-for-9 shooting and Daniels to (six), I’d probably say ‘how many did we win by?’,” Hurley said. “The plan was to make their others beat us, guys that for the season or throughout their career shot in the high 20s and low 30s from three. (They) stepped up tonight in Slater and Samuels and won that game.”

Partaking in their second season in the rebooted Big East, Connecticut has not appeared in a conference final at MSG since 2011. They did reach their second consecutive semifinal round, doing so for the first time in the Big East since the 2004-05 editions.

Hurley said that Friday’s loss didn’t take away from what the Huskies have been able to conference play was the best in any grouping in over a decade, last reaching at least 13 such victories when they won 15 in 2008-09. accomplish in their first two years back under the Big East umbrella. Their 13-win tally in

“​​What this group has accomplished in two years in this tournament, it's very hard to do,” Hurley said. “It's deflating when set lofty goals and really high standards. This team wanted the regular season championship and then wanted a Big East Conference championship. We didn't get either but we strive for them, I think, in an honorable way, and this team has had a very very good year and (has) nothing to be ashamed about here.”

Villanova will go for its sixth title in program history on Saturday evening against the fourth-seeded Bluejays (6 p.m. ET, Fox). Creighton (22-10) got Friday’s semifinal action rolling with an 85-58 upset victory over top-ranked Providence. This marks the Bluejays’ fourth conference final appearance since joining in 2014.

UConn now awaits placement on the NCAA Tournament bracket, which will be unveiled on Sunday evening (6 p.m. ET, CBS). The Huskies are destined for their first set of back-to-back appearances since 2011-12 and will look to secure their highest seed since earning a No. 3 in the 2011 edition en-route to the national championship.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags