Hartford, CT (Sports Network) - A.J. Price scored 24 points and Jeff Adrien added 17, leading 15th-ranked Connecticut to a 79-71 victory over West Virginia at the XL Center.

Craig Austrie and Stanley Robinson each chipped in 12 for the Huskies (23-6, 12-4 Big East), who withstood a late West Virginia comeback to win for the 12th time in their last 13 games.

Joe Alexander poured in 32 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for West Virginia (20-9, 9-7), which had a two-game win streak stopped and continued to struggle against top competition in an effort to land an NCAA Tournament bid.

The Mountaineers' only victory against a team with a current winning record in Big East play came way back on January 6 versus Marquette. Their other conference wins have come against Syracuse, St. John's, South Florida, Rutgers, DePaul, Seton Hall and Providence (twice). They'll get another crack at a team with a winning record on Monday night when Pittsburgh visits the WVU Coliseum.

Alex Ruoff was the only other West Virginia player to score in double figures with 12 points.

"Our problem is, we're not consistent enough," said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins. "We lack some consistency. And we're young."

The Mountaineers trailed by as many as 17 in the second half, but eventually whittled that deficit to three with the help of a 13-2 run fueled by nine points from John Flowers.

A pair of free throws by Adrien gave the Huskies a 64-50 cushion with 8:50 remaining, but Flowers drilled a three-pointer to ignite West Virginia's burst. He also capped it with a layup with just over four minutes remaining to pull the Mountaineers within 66-63.

The Huskies, though, answered with the next five to stem the momentum. Austrie drained a pair of free throws and Robinson connected from beyond the arc to give UConn an eight-point advantage.

West Virginia never got closer than six from there, as the Huskies connected on 5-of-8 free throws over the final 90 seconds.

UConn finished 22-of-29 from the line, while West Virginia was just 6-of-11.

"Even though they made a good run and came back, we were still confident that we were going to win the game," said Price. "We knew that as long as we got stops we would win."

West Virginia raced out to a 10-4 lead after a three-pointer by Ruoff, but Connecticut followed with the next seven points and it remained tight for the next few minutes.

Price connected on back-to-back threes midway through the opening half to give the Huskies a 21-15 edge. UConn continued to roll from there, as another shot from beyond the arc by Price capped a 22-6 burst that pushed the advantage to 37-21 with just under five minutes to play in the half.

The lead reached 17 a few moments later before consecutive baskets by Alexander in the final minute sent the Mountaineers into the break down 42-29.

Price scored 13 points in the first half for UConn, then drilled a pair of three-pointers in the first few moments of the second half to extend the Husky lead back to 17.

"It's good to see us play good offense," remarked Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun. "It's a little disappointing that we let up a little bit on defense."