ARTFORD, Conn. - The last play pretty much defined the season.

Down three, University of Massachusetts guard Charlton Clarke steamed upcourt. Ahead of him, Carmelo Travieso, fighting the fatigue of a full 40-minute effort, sprinted into the middle, then cut hard around a double pick and caught Clarke's pass in full stride. With the clock ticking down to two seconds, Travieso wheeled around, planted his feet then launched himself to full extension. At the apex of his leap he feathered out a soft parabolic shot from well beyond the 3-point arc.

"It felt good," Travieso later said. "I got a real good look."

"That last one was in," said a spent-looking Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun. "I saw it in. You knew he was going to take it. You knew he was going to make it."

The ball spun around the rim and caromed away, setting UConn players into a gleeful dance, while UMass players looked helplessly up at the basket.

With Travieso's miss, the Huskies claimed a dramatic 64-61 victory in the inaugural "U Game" played before 14,389 fans last night at the Hartford Civic Center.

So the frustrating 1996 portion of the season ends for UMass with a 4-7 record, a loss total that equals the combined figures for the past two years. But in last night's gritty and gutty effort that saw the Minutemen climb almost all the way back from a 15-point second-half deficit, coach Bruiser Flint felt that his team might well have laid the groundwork for a turnaround in '97.

"I think our guys made giant strides tonight," said Flint. "I hope that this is the game that gets us off and catapults us into doing some good things."

UConn, 7-2, was led by Rashamel Jones, who scored 17 points and connected on four of six 3-pointers. Kirk King hurt UMass inside with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Richard Hamilton added 11 points.

The Minutemen were paced by Charlton Clarke, who scored 15 points and committed just one turnover against UConn's vaunted pressure in a 37-minute effort. Travieso scored 11, but shot just 3-19 while being hounded all over the court. Tyrone Weeks had 10.

While the crowd fell almost 2,000 short of capacity, the atmosphere was raucous from the start for the first game between the two New England rivals in almost seven years. The Minutemen got off to one of their first decent starts of the year, opening up an 8-1 lead with some of their most spirited play of the season.

It proved short-lived. UConn hit shots at a torrid pace, connecting on 58.3 percent in the first half. The Minutemen suffered a significant blow when Edgar Padilla, trying yet again to play through his painfully sprained ankle/deep bone bruise, tumbled awkwardly to the floor. He limped off after just three minutes of action and didn't return. UMass also struggled with its anemic halfcourt offense and trailed at the break, 40-31.

In the second half, things got worse. The Huskies hit their first five shots, ballooning the lead to 51-36.

But with things at their bleakest, the Minutemen summoned their full defensive intensity and crept back into the contest. UConn would not hit a field goal over the last 10:31 of the game.

UMass often cut the gap to the 5-7 point range, but couldn't penetrate that comfort level with an excruciating series of missed opportunities. Missed jumpers from long and short range and a pair of galling missed front ends of one-and-one free-throw opportunities kept the Minutemen at a distance. UConn began eating more and more clock, and UMass just couldn't find a way to deliver on enough of the precious possessions down the stretch.

Finally, Inus Norville (a superb 8-point, 10-rebound performance in just 14 minutes) finished off a wild flurry of offensive rebounds with a short jumper to cut the gap to 62-59 with 28 seconds left.

After Ricky Moore hit one of two free throws, Weeks bulled his way in for a hoop that put UMass within 63-61 with 11 seconds remaining.

Jones was then fouled with 9.5 seconds left, and left the proverbial door slightly ajar by hitting only one of two free throws.

That set the stage for UMass' dramatic narrow miss at the buzzer.

"I did everything possible to get the shot off," said Travieso. "It just didn't go in."

Massachusetts

Connecticut

Percentages: Fg-.488, Ft-.667.
3-Point Goals: 4-8, .500 (Jones 4-6, Moore 0-1, Carson 0-1).
Team rebounds: 4.
Blocked shots: 2 (Jones, King).
Turnovers: 18 (King 6, Jones 4, Moore 4, Hamilton, Voskuhl).
Steals: 7 (Jones 2, Moore 2, Freeman, King, Voskuhl).

                           1st  2nd   TOTAL
Massachusetts               31   30      61
Connecticut                 40   24      64