Hartford — Competitive chaos ruled on Saturday.

A physical tug-of-war between two long-time combatants in UConn and Cincinnati, both fighting for survival in the American Athletic Conference tournament semifinals.

Heated exchanges between players, one leading to a double technical foul.

A flagrant foul on UConn senior Amida Brimah for throwing an elbow. Cincinnati's Gary Clark losing part of a tooth.

An endless parade to the foul line, with referees calling an AAC record 56 fouls. And an upset XL Center crowd expressing its disapproval.

In the end, sixth-seeded UConn lost the entertaining, choppy game and saw its season end with an 81-71 loss. Cincinnati (29-4), the second seed, advances to face top-seeded SMU in Sunday afternoon's championship game at 3:15 p.m.

The Huskies had appeared in all three previous AAC title games, winning last season.

"It was a tough, hard-fought game," coach Kevin Ollie said. "Our guys never gave in."

All the adversity eventually got the best of the short-handed Huskies (16-17), who finished with a losing record for the first time since the 1986-87 season — Hall of Fame Jim Calhoun's first year in Storrs.

Sophomore Jalen Adams led the way with 20 points — 16 in the second half to keep his team in contention – while freshman Christian Vital fired in a career-high 18 points and grabbed a team-best nine rebounds.

Simply put, the better and deeper team won. The Bearcats converted 38 of 46 from the foul line, including 28 of 31 in the second half when they shot only 23.8 percent (5-for-21) from the field. Junior Gary Clark hit 15 of 16 free throws for a game-high 25 points and added nine rebounds.

"Hopefully, our guys learned from this, how to play on a championship level, and I thought we did that in the second half," Ollie said. "But, of course, it's hard to win a game when a team gets to the free throw line 46 times. Credit to them, they made them."

UConn never led in any of the three meetings this season, losing every one by double digits. The Huskies fell behind by 41-29 at the break. With Adams on the bench in foul trouble, Cincinnati went on a 14-2 run to build a 35-21 edge.

"It was tough," said Adams, who was limited to nine minutes in the first half. "I put my team in a difficult position by getting those early fouls."

As they've done all season, the Huskies fought back in the face of adversity in the second half.

A 15-3 run whittled a 14-point deficit to just two. Rodney Purvis buried his second straight 3-pointer to narrow the gap to 48-46 with 13:20 remaining.

The Bearcats found their way to the foul line and then Troy Caupain (18 points) and Jacob Evans (21 points) drained back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the lead to 65-55.

Adams started to dominate by attacking the basket. His two free throws gave him 13 straight points and trimmed the deficit to 65-60 with 4:04 remaining.

"He's just a really, really good player," Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. "He's like Barry Sanders with a basketball out there. His change of direction and explosiveness is just tremendous."

A mentally-tough Cincinnati team responded again. 

Then Kenton Facey fouled out, and the Huskies just couldn't get over the hump.

"I just think we needed to dig down a little bit more, get the key stops that we really needed to get once we were within reach," said Purvis, who along with Cincinnati's Nysier Brooks received a technical foul. "Of course, I can say I felt that we played good defense and somehow we fouled. ... But the game is over with."

Foul trouble plagued both teams, but especially hurt the Huskies. Facey played only 13 minutes, leaving Ollie with limited options. They converted 20 of 25 free throws overall.

The combined free throw attempts (71) and converted ones (58) by both teams set an AAC tournament single-game record.

"I guess the refs did the best job that they possibly can," Ollie said. "I don't know if a lot of people were watching that game, I mean because it's just all free throws. That's not how basketball is supposed to be played."

Purvis (10 points) walked off the floor for the final time with 32 seconds left, headed to the end of the bench and bowed his head in his hands. He was UConn's leading scorer during the three-game AAC tournament run.

The game also marked the end of the careers of Facey (seven points) and Amida Brimah (four points, eight rebounds, three blocks).

"Proud of our seniors," Ollie said.  "They won a lot of games here and left this program better."

g.keefe@theday.com