HARTFORD, Conn. — Nice tries don't get teams into the Big East tournament.

Big wins do, and Notre Dame almost came away with one Tuesday night. Almost.

Instead, the road just got a little tougher for the Fighting Irish, who lost to No. 3 Connecticut 75-74.

The Irish threw a scare into the Huskies, rallying from 19 points down with a 25-2 second-half run. But the Irish are now at risk of sitting out the conference tournament. Only the top 12 teams from the expanded 16-team conference reach Madison Square Garden. With three games remaining and wins by Providence and St. John's on Tuesday, the Irish have slipped to 14th place.

"We know we face the biggest basketball week of our lives," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "We're trying to get to New York City with the three games we have next week."

Still ahead for the Fighting Irish are home games with Marquette and DePaul and a game at Providence.

Against UConn, the Irish showed why they were the best 3-point shooting team in the conference and hit four 3s in their second-half rally. The Irish had their first lead at 61-60 midway through the half and UConn coach Jim Calhoun quickly called a timeout to gather his shaken team.

"They were stunned. It happened so quick," he said. "We shut the engine off and stopped playing."

Then it was the Huskies' turn to rely on their strength — the inside game. UConn finished with a Big East-record 19 blocks, pounded the ball inside down the stretch and after Marcus Williams' bank shot sent the game to overtime, the Huskies escaped with a win.

Silenced by the Notre Dame's rally, the sellout Hartford Civic Center crowd of 16,294 was deafening in the overtime period.

"(Notre Dame) had every right to win that game just as much as we did," Calhoun said. "We had to will our way back in. Thank God it was here at the Civic Center. I'm not sure we could win that game on the road."

Williams finished with a triple-double for UConn, which sent Notre Dame to yet another close loss. The Fighting Irish (13-11, 4-9 Big East) lost by an average of 4.3 points in their previous 10 defeats and are now 1-6 against ranked teams this season.

Hilton Armstrong blocked seven shots and hit a pair of free throws late in overtime to put UConn ahead. Rudy Gay came down with a key defensive rebound as time expired, helping the Huskies (24-2, 11-2) hang on after blowing the big lead.

Williams finished with 18 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds for the sixth triple-double in school history and first since Emeka Okafor in December 2003 against Army. His 10th rebound was the most important. With time running out in regulation, Williams scooped up a miss from Gay along the baseline and banked in a runner to tie it at 71 and send the game into overtime.

"I saw it was kind of long, so I tried to just drift to the other side," Williams said. "I've never had 10 rebounds. Ever. I never had 10 rebounds shooting by myself."

Chris Quinn started the rally with a bank shot with 15 minutes left in regulation and Colin Falls scored 12 points in the 25-2 spurt. His baseline layup gave the Irish their first lead at 61-60 with 10:35 to play.

UConn relied on its size inside to come back. Josh Boone scored on a pair of putbacks and grabbed a couple of boards on the defensive end. The Huskies bought time with Williams' bank shot at the end of regulation.

Neither team scored until Gay hit a jumper with 1:41 left in the extra period. Rob Kurz countered with a 3-pointer and the Irish regained the lead 74-73. Armstrong was fouled on UConn's next possession and hit both free throws to close out the scoring.

Chris Quinn, who finished with 13 points for Notre Dame, gave the Irish one final chance. He threw up a floater in traffic and Gay came down with the rebound.

"Connecticut made some big plays when they had to," Brey said. "I'll go to bed with that Chris Quinn runner for the rest of my life and play the law of averages. We did not get it."

UConn concluded its regular season at the Civic Center 10-0 and snapped Notre Dame's three-game winning streak.

"We gave ourselves a chance to win a basketball game against a very good team," Brey said. "For our group, there is no more resilient basketball team than my guys."

At Ann Arbor, Mich., Daniel Horton scored 25 of his career-high 39 points in the second half to help Michigan (18-7, 8-6 Big Ten) snap an 11-game losing streak against Illinois.Wolverines coach Tommy Amaker got his first win against the Illini after losing the first 12, including his time at Seton Hall.James Augustine scored 23 points and Dee Brown added 20 for Illinois (22-5, 8-5).

At Charlottesville, Va., J.R. Reynolds scored 28 points and Virginia hit 12 3-pointers to end Boston College's five-game winning streak.Sean Singletary added 16 points for Virginia (14-10, 7-6 Atlantic Coast Conference).Craig Smith led Boston College (21-6, 8-5) with 22 points and nine rebounds, and joined Danya Adams as the only Eagles players with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.

At Lawrence, Kan., freshman Julian Wright had a season-high 20 points on 10-for-11 shooting and Kansas won its 10th straight.The Jayhawks (20-6, 11-2 Big 12) took a half-game lead in the conference race ahead of No. 7 Texas.Freshman Curtis Jerrels had 17 points for Baylor (2-10), not allowed to play a nonconference schedule because of NCAA sanctions.