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Connecticut's Edmund Saunders goes up for a dunk to score two of his game-high 15 points in the first half of the Connecticut-Pittsburgh Big East Conference game. Connecticut defeated Pittsburgh 73-53. (AP Photo/Bob Child)

By DONNA TOMMELLEO
Associated Press Writer

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) (Jan. 10) -- Taliek Brown had 10 points and 10 assists to lead No. 13 Connecticut to 73-53 victory over Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.

With his double-double, Brown became the second freshman in school history to record back-to-back games with 10 or more assists. He had 12 assists in UConn's overtime win against St. John's on Saturday.

The first freshman to reach that mark was teammate Caron Butler, who had consecutive double-digit assist games earlier this season. Butler had 11 points Wednesday and has scored in double figures in all 12 of his games this season.

Reserve Edmund Saunders scored 15 points for the Huskies (13-2, 2-1 Big East) and led the team with eight rebounds.

Ricardo Greer led Pittsburgh (9-5, 1-2) with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The Huskies led from wire-to-wire in this game. A combination of UConn's uptempo transition game, solid post play and poor Pittsburgh shooting put the Panthers in a hole early.

Pittsburgh shot 1-for-8 in the first 5 1/2 minutes of the game. Butler's dunk at 8:48 kicked off a 10-2 run giving UConn a 29-17 lead, its largest of the half.

The Panthers then began to heat up and countered with an 8-0 run, keyed by Zelimir Stevanovic's 3-pointer with 5:30 left to shave the lead to 29-25. The Panthers trailed 37-31 at the break.

Butler's bucket 50 seconds into the second half started a 13-3 UConn run and the Huskies steadily pulled away. UConn led by 21 points with less than five minutes to play.

UConn outmuscled Pittsburgh down low, outscoring the Panthers 46-26 in the paint. The Huskies also got 24 points off 18 Pittsburgh turnovers. Brown had three of the Huskies' eight steals.