Butler has seen enough of Solo Ball.

No. 6 UConn defeated Butler 80-70 behind 24 points from Ball on Wednesday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. In the Huskies’ Big East opener on Dec. 16, Ball scored a career-high 26 points to down Butler 79-60.

On Wednesday, Ball drained 8 of 14 shots, including 6 of 12 from 3-point range. Tarris Reed Jr., who scored 16 points in the first game against the Bulldogs, matched that point total and led the Huskies with 10 rebounds. Silas Demary Jr. added 11 points and 10 assists.

One player the Indianapolis crowd was happy to see was freshman Braylon Mullins, who played in high school at Greenfield Central in the city’s suburbs and made his collegiate debut in front of his hometown crowd. He got cheers when he was introduced, despite wearing the uniform of the enemy, and scored 15 points in 33 minutes.

TNT Sports reported that Mullins had heard about 200 family members, friends and fans had bought tickets to the game.

Butler and UConn played a back-and-forth game with eight lead changes and three ties, and the Huskies were unable to shake the Bulldogs until late in the second half.

A three-point play from Reed put the Huskies up by eight, 62-54, with 10:46 to play. But over the next four minutes, Butler whittled the lead to two, capped by a Michael Ajayi jumper.

UConn responded with a 10-0 run on a jumper by Reed, a layup by Alex Karaban, and 3-pointers by Ball and Demary to take a 74-62 lead with 4:32 left. The Bulldogs couldn’t come back this time.

The Huskies were unable to take control late in their 81-72 loss to then-No. 22 St. John’s, who slapped them with their first league defeat on Friday in New York.

After the Butler game, UConn head coach Dan Hurley told TNT Sports that he was happy his team responded to the loss with its tough play in the final minutes.

“In that stretch -- and credit Butler, we get everyone's best shot,” Hurley said. “But when it got to two or four or whatever it got to there, you know, our response was to get us to double figures, make some big shots. And any road win in conference, it's like worth two.”

The high scorer for Butler was Drayton Jones, who scored 15 points on 6-of-6 shooting. Yohan Traore had 14, Evan Haywood scored 12 and Jamie Kaiser Jr. contributed 10 points.

Finley Bizjack, who entered the game No. 3 in the Big East in scoring (17.4 points per game) had a rough night (1-of-6 shooting) and scored only 5 points. He left the game late in the second half with a left wrist injury.

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