New York – When Dan Hurley arrived in Storrs in March 2018, UConn began a quest to restore respectability back to a successful program that had fallen on hard times.

It’s been a long, grueling climb as the Huskies gradually returned to Big East championship contender status and became a fixture in the top 25 this season.

But they stumbled short of another breakthrough moment on Friday in a riveting Big East semifinal game against top-seeded Marquette at a sold-out Madison Square Garden.

WIth a chance to win or tie the game, sophomore Jordan Hawkins missed a contested 3-pointer at the buzzer. The fourth-seeded Huskies (25-8) suffered a 70-68 defeat.

They’re now 0-3 in Big East tournament semifinals under Hurley, all by three points or less.

“Disappointing loss,” Hurley said. “Frustrating thing for us, and I’ll speak to where we are. Just to be back in the semis for the third straight year and three pretty excruciating losses. We were hell-bent on playing for a championship tomorrow.”

Instead, the regular-season champion Golden Eagles (27-6) will be making their first appearance in the title game.

A nice consolation prize awaits UConn on Selection Sunday, as it will receive an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament.

“We came into this game being one of the hottest teams in the country,” redshirt freshman Alex Karaban said. “We’re not going to let one game set us back. This is heartbreaking. It’s crushing us right now. It’s going to crush us for the next day. We’ve got to move on quickly and continue to have trust in what we’ve done the entire season.”

The Huskies entered the game winners of nine of their last 10 games, six straight. The Golden Eagles were just as hot, winning 11 of 12, including six straight.

Marquette played like it had something to prove, digging in on the defensive end and making big shots down the stretch. Big East Player of the Year Tyler Kolek and league’s sixth man award winner David Joplin each scored 17 points.

The Golden Eagles took offense to comments that Hurley made on the Big East Shoot-around show following UConn’s quarterfinal win over Providence.

Talking about his team’s home-court advantage playing in front of pro-Husky crowds, Hurley said his team “owns MSG.”

“I want to say this in the most respectful way possible,” said Marquette coach Shaka Smart, “but it felt like a lot of people were giving UConn the game coming in. And there was a comment made about who owns the Garden. We said, wait a minute, we won this league. So we’re not taking a backseat to anybody.

“You can say that, but then going and doing it is another thing. You know it’s going to come down to the last minute or even second of the game. It did.”

UConn had numerous shots to catch Marquette after Chase Ross hit a 3-pointer to put his team in front for good, 67-64, with 6:34 left.

The intense game remained tight right down to the frantic final minutes.

Coming out of a timeout trailing 70-68 with 2:14 left, Hawkins came up short on a difficult drive.

After Marquette missed a free throw, Calcaterra missed on 3-point attempts with 1:23 left and 41 seconds remaining.

The Huskies still had life, getting a defensive stop and racing down court. Hawkins ended up with the ball but couldn’t deliver. He struggled all game, scoring just five points on 2 for 11 shooting.

Dejected and disappointed, UConn walked off the court.

“We lost to a good team, but we beat ourselves,” said junior Andre Jackson, a team energizer who fouled out of the game with just under two minutes left and played just 15 minutes. “We definitely had a great chance to win that game.”

Junior Adama Sanogo had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Huskies and reserve Nahiem Alleyne and Alex Karaban each added 10.

Marquette’s defensive pressure put UConn on its heels from the start in the first Big East tourney meeting between the two teams. Nothing came easy for the Huskies.

“Marquette really, really jumped us to start the game,” Hurley said. “I don’t think we anticipated their ball pressure.”

Still, the two teams went into the locker room at halftime deadlocked at 38-all.

The Huskies had to fix their leaky defense that allowed the Golden Eagles to shoot 53.8 percent in the first half.

But they continued to have breakdowns at the start of the second half.

Marquette drained its first six shots and eventually took its biggest lead, 56-46, on Joplin’s fourth 3-pointer of the game.

“We put ourselves behind the eight-ball, just giving up 18 points in the first five minutes of the second half,” Hurley said.

The pro-UConn crowd came to life and tried to help energize the Huskies.

UConn stormed back and stabilized its defense by mixing in zone.

Reserve Nahiem Alleyne’s pull-up jumper cut the gap to 58-54 and forced Marquette to call a timeout. A fired up Hurley bounced out onto the court to greet his team.

Calcaterra’s 3-pointer capped a 14-4 run and tied the score at 60-all with 9:23 remaining to set up an entertaining finish.

It just didn’t end the way UConn planned.

Under pressure, Hawkins had little chance to make his game-winning attempt.

“I looked up and had two seconds left, so I had to get a shot up,” Hawkins said.

The Huskies lost despite receiving 25 points from their bench, committing only nine turnovers and winning the rebounding battle, 37-27. Making 11 3-pointers helped the Golden Eagles’ cause.

They’re looking to quickly turn the page and begin to prepare for the NCAA tournament.

“It’s going to take me a night to get over it, especially for me because this is the third time in a row that has happened in the same exact round,” Jackson said. “It definitely hits home a lot and hurts. Definitely looking forward to pushing through this.”

g.keefe@theday.com