WASHINGTON, D.C. – It came down to Tarris Reed Jr. at the foul line with a one-and-one opportunity and four seconds to play. And the Huskies’ senior, a 58.6% free throw shooter this season who’s said his days in college basketball are numbered, answered the moment.
He took a deep breath and made both, putting the UConn men up four before Jayden Ross stole the ensuing inbound pass to secure a 67-63 win over No. 3 seed Michigan State in a thrilling Sweet 16 matchup inside Capital One Arena Friday night.
“The game was almost exactly what we expected – except going up 19, I don’t think that was on my Bingo card,” coach Dan Hurley said. “Just thrilled to be advancing. It’s always great when you get to stay in town and be one of the last two teams standing.”
The Huskies (32-5) advanced to the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament for the 14th time in program history and will meet No. 1 overall seed Duke – which beat St. John’s, 80-75 – at 5:05 p.m. on Sunday.
UConn built a 19-point lead in the first half on the back of a 6-for-7 start from 3 and a defensive effort that held Michigan State without a make from the field for nearly nine minutes. But the Huskies knew Tom Izzo’s team wasn’t going away.
The Spartans came all the way back, taking a lead with just over nine minutes to play. They got to within one with a dunk from big man Carson Cooper with two minutes left and forced Hurley to call a timeout.
The ball was going to find Alex Karaban’s hands.
UConn fed Reed the ball in the post, the defense started to collapse and he kicked it out to Karaban from a foot inside the March Madness logo.
“He had to (take that shot),” Hurley said. “When you look at what was going on on the court, he had to have the courage as the best player and the captain and the guy that everyone’s looking to there. We kind of almost exhausted Tarris and it really was the only place to go at that point in the game.”
Karaban nailed the shot. Jeremy Fears answered with a deep ball of his own, but the Huskies’ seniors Karaban and Reed went a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final minute to put the game away.
Reed finished with a game-high 20 points with five rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Karaban scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half and finished with seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks of his own.
“I refuse to lose and I’ll really do anything to help this team win. The main thing in the huddle that really stuck with me is Coach saying, ‘Go out there and fire, have no regrets at the end of this,’ when Michigan State started making their run. That just really stuck with me,” Karaban said. “If I see a glimpse of an opening, I’m going to let it fly.”
Karaban had only taken three shots at halftime and the Spartans had already started their comeback surge – closing the half on a 9-2 run – when Hurley had a word with his captain.
“My message to him was: ‘If you’re going to go out in this tournament, you’ve got to go out on your shield. You’ve got to go out firing, or you’re going to have a lot of regrets,’” Hurley said.
The winningest player in UConn history, Karaban improved to 16-1 over his career in the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s like having an associate head coach that is in the locker room, that lives in the apartments, that is in the dining, that is in the weight room, that’s peer pressuring his teammates to do extra. It’s like having a top assistant that’s on your team and always around your players. He’s that mature with his approach,” Hurley said. “I’m just glad that, again, the decision to come back for this last year, that he’s been able to play as well, and his last run has been fun. Obviously he’s improving his draft stock, and he’s established himself as the biggest winner and the most decorated player in UConn history. That’s hard to do at a place like ours.”
He had help from Solo Ball, who contributed to the early onslaught with a pair of much-needed 3-pointers and finished with 12 points. Freshman Braylon Mullins added eight, including a triple that broke the seal after the Huskies started 0-for-6 from the field in the second half.
Silas Demary Jr. was hobbled at the point guard spot, but backup Malachi Smith came through with seven assists and four steals in 17 minutes. He immediately got involved with a 3-pointer, then a deflection that led to a Karaban layup, giving the Huskies a double-figure lead just over seven minutes into the game. On the next possession, he helped Jaylin Stewart announce his return – playing for the first time since Feb. 21 after a knee injury – as he assisted on a triple that made the score 21-6.
Ball saw his second triple fall and Stewart added one at the free throw line to make it a 19-point game at the 10:15 mark in the first half.
“I always say to myself, when a team gets a big lead halfway through the first half, I always say, like, ‘it’s too early,’” Hurley said. “We knew they were going to make a run. There was some self-inflicted things that went on with us out there, but we knew they were going to make a run. We knew we were going to have to make plays down the stretch, get stops, make big free throws, make big shots because to beat the Michigan State Spartans, we weren’t winning going away. Although that would have been nice.”
The Huskies’ lead held around 15 points until the final three minutes of the half, when Jaxon Kohler (12 points, eight rebounds) made Michigan State’s first 3-pointer of the night. The Spartans took advantage of turnovers and missed shots, and went into halftime facing a 35-27 deficit.
They came out of the break on a roll, scoring seven consecutive points to get to within one before Mullins’ big 3-pointer in front of the Huskies’ bench. Reed then made a steal in the backcourt and went coast-to-coast for a one-handed jam.
But UConn started the second half just 4-for-19 from the field and Kohler finished a three-point play around the 10-minute mark that put the Spartans ahead. It was a dog fight the rest of the way as point guard Jeremy Fears refused to let his team go down easy.
After trading 3s with Fears, Karaban made two free throws to put the Huskies up three with 22.5 seconds to play. The Spartans threw up a desperation 3-point attempt to tie the game and drew a foul on the offensive rebound attempt, but Cooper missed his second to set up Reed’s opportunity to seal the win at the line.
“I just looked at the rim and said, ‘This is God’s will,’” Hurley said. “I do that now at the end of games. I kind of just look and stare at the basket, say like, ‘This is gonna go however this is gonna go.’ I don’t root for the free throw to go in, I just kind of stare at the basket and I prepare myself, I brace myself for what is about to happen.”
“The guys around me were like, ‘T, trust. We see you do the free-throw game every day. We see you take your time at the free throw line, you put in the work,’” Reed said. “So I took a deep breath and took my time at the line.”
