By Kim J. Harmon

For all intents and purposes, it was over.

With George Zaruba scoring 18 points and John Aminti added another eight, UConn had built up a seemingly insurmountable, 40-15, lead over Duke in the waning moments of the first half in the Rising Stars Summer Basketball League championship game last Friday night at Treadwell Park.

The key word there being … seemingly.

Because just as soon as some were willing to count Duke out, that’s when Duke began to come back.

Okay, Duke never could get all the way back (UConn won the title, 73-66), but the challengers did whittle that 25-point deficit all the way down to five  points midway through the third period and then whittled a 16-point deficit all the way down to five points early in the fourth period … thus turning what had been a ho-hum affair into a thriller riding on every trip up and down the court.

Ben Miles popped in a couple of buckets and Zaruba added one of his own (along with a foul shot and a big block) as UConn jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the first. After Max Paynter added a three-pointer a few moments later, UConn had taken a 14-3 lead.

But Xhulio Halili added a three of his own and a key block at the buzzer as Duke inched a little bit closer.

Dan Quinn, however, opened the second period with a three-pointer to get UConn started. Zaruba and Aminti took over at that point as UConn went on a 23-9 run to take a 40-15 lead. The only things that kept it from being any worse were the efforts of Joe Cappiello (five points) and Halili (his second three-pointer of the night).

And it was Halili’s third trey of the night – and subsequent reverse layup – late in the first half that started Duke on its comeback.

Duke opened the second half on a 9-2 run to trim the UConn lead to 42-31. Cappiello started with a pull-up jumper and added two buckets in the lane (with a foul shot) to fuel the run. UConn put a brief halt to the rally when Quinn hit a three-pointer from the corner, but Steve Musco popped in three baskets in a row and Cappiello (after Michelle Rahtelli made a huge save on the baseline) drained a three-pointer to trim the UConn lead to only five.

The rally ran out of steam, though. Aminti (six points), Zaruba (a basket and an assist) and Connor Collier (four points) got back into the act and UConn had built up a 59-43 lead by the close of the third period.

Duke had another rally in it, however, as Musco and Cappiello took over the show. Musco had six points and dished off one assist while Cappiello had four points with one assist as Duke went on an 11-0 tear to open the fourth period.

And there – again – the rally ran out of steam. Before things could get too hairy for UConn, Zaruba popped in a long two-pointer from just inside the arc. Quinn and Aminti both followed with buckets and the UConn lead had swelled back to 11 points, 65-54.

Halili canned back-to-back three-pointers and with 2:30 left to play, Duke was back within five, 65-60, but UConn went on an 8-0 run (buckets by Zaruba, Quinn, Aminti and Miles) to essentially put the game away.

Zaruba and Cappiello led all scorers – and their respective teams – with 22 points apiece.

For UConn, Aminti added 18 and Quinn chipped in with 12. Miles (8), Collier (6), Paynter (5) and Dan Clement (1) also got into the scoring column. For Duke, Halili canned five three-pointers and finished with 19 markers while Musco added 18. Brendan O’Connell (2), Dan Gallagher (2) and Austin Jones (1) contributed as well.