WASHINGTON, D.C. – It was a Mullins miracle.
The UConn men’s basketball team looked dead in the water facing a 19-point deficit in the first half of Sunday’s Elite Eight matchup against No. 1 overall seed Duke.
But senior Tarris Reed Jr. led a valiant second-half comeback effort with 26 points and nine rebounds. And, exactly 27 years removed from shocking the world in the 1999 national championship game, freshman Braylon Mullins provided incredible March magic, nailing a 3-point miracle from just over half court with less than a second on the clock to give the Huskies their first lead since the score was 2-0.
The 73-72 victory sent UConn back to the Final Four for the third time in four years. It was the first time in NCAA Tournament history that a No. 1 seed lost after leading by 15 or more points at halftime.
“We got a deflection, the ball rallied back to me and they were telling me to shoot all night, they had all the confidence in me. That’s crazy that’s the only one I made,” Mullins said. He was 0-for-4 from beyond the arc prior to the shot. The team was just 4-for-22. “I can’t even explain it. It’s such a crazy experience. It’s single-handedly the greatest moment in my life.”
Silas Demary Jr., who had just made one of two shots from the free throw line to get the Huskies to within two with 10 seconds on the clock, deflected an outlet pass as Duke’s Cayden Boozer attempted to advance the ball and run out as much time as possible. It fell into the hands of Mullins near half-court and he fed it up to captain Alex Karaban, who had already hit a clutch 3-pointer in the final minute.
“I saw Braylon, and for some reason I had the gut instinct to pass it to him,” Karaban said, now 17-1 in the NCAA Tournament over his career. “I looked at the rim and there was five seconds left, and I thought maybe something better could develop. I had Cam Boozer in front of me, which was a harder, more difficult shot, so I passed it to Braylon. When I saw him release it, I was like, that really might go in. It went in, and the Indiana kid sent us to Indianapolis.”
The Huskies (33-5) will meet No. 3 seed Illinois on the elevated court in Indianapolis – back in Mullins’ home state – at 6:09 p.m. on Saturday night. It will be UConn’s eighth trip to the Final Four all-time.
No. 1 seeds Arizona and Michigan make up the other side of the Final Four bracket.
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“That game was a reflection on the season,” said coach Dan Hurley. “It’s been a season where we’ve been dealt with injuries to key players at critical points of the year that we’ve had to overcome, and we’ve had to show a lot of fortitude and resilience and just kind of claw our way through the season. Thought the game was a microcosm of that. We fought, we clawed, put ourselves in position to take advantage of a mistake that they made. And one of the most brilliant shooters you’ll ever see shoot a basketball made an incredible, legendary March shot.”
UConn looked overmatched, overwhelmed by the size of the Blue Devils, who’ve been the best team in college basketball all season long. The Huskies were reliant on Reed, who scored 12 of their first 16 points, but they were trading 2-pointers for 3s and a pair of triples from the Boozer twins – Cameron (27 points, eight rebounds) and Cayden (15 points, five rebounds, six assists) – made it a 10-point game less than seven minutes in.
Duke saw four 3-pointers fall before the Huskies got their first. It came from an unlikely source, backup point guard Malachi Smith, after an offensive rebound from Jaylin Stewart with 10 minutes left in the half.
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Smith made a steal at the other end and found Demary for a layup to make it a five point game, but Duke snatched the momentum back with an emphatic 14-0 run and the Huskies – shooting just 1-for-11 from beyond the arc in the first half – went into the bonus facing a 19-point deficit with five minutes left until the break.
At that point, ESPN had Duke’s percent chance of winning at 97.1%.
But not if Reed had anything to say about it.
“I was just really trying to keep the team afloat. Sometimes other people have to keep us afloat,” Reed said at his locker, still in shock. “That’s just the beauty of this team. Many different guys can score. We said at halftime, like, once guys start knocking down shots, with the inside presence that I had, it was gonna be over for them. They started doubling (me), I started kicking out, guys were getting open looks, seeing the ball go in a couple times, and yeah, it was wraps from there.”
After Mullins finished a three-point play and Demary a fastbreak layup, the Huskies’ big man scored seven points in a row. He deflected a pass at the top of the key and sprinted the length of the court for a two-handed dunk, then assisted Karaban for a layup – his first points of the game – and hung on the rim again for a second-chance flush that cut the deficit to just seven with 11 minutes to play.
Duke pushed it back to double figures before Demary ended the Huskies’ streak of 11 consecutive misses from 3 with a pair, one from each corner, to keep it a seven point game with six minutes remaining.
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UConn’s deficit was down to two with less than four minutes to play after an and-one in transition from Solo Ball. Reed came up with his second steal of the game at the other end and Karaban, who had just two points through the first 39 minutes, nailed a 3-pointer in front of the Huskies’ bench to cut it to one with 51 seconds remaining.
Cameron Boozer made it a three point game with 28 seconds left before Duke opted to foul Demary so it could get the ball back and run out the final 10 seconds. He missed the first and made the second, and then made Cayden Boozer’s attempt to advance the ball a critical mistake.
“I don’t even remember in the huddle what we were even planning to do… Just had to jump as high as I could and try to tip the ball and I was able to do that,” Demary said. “For Braylon to shoot that shot, it was kind of like in slow motion. Everything slowed down and just for him to hit that shot was crazy.”
The game-winner was only UConn’s fifth made 3-pointer on 23 attempts, but it counted for everything.
“We’ve had to win a lot of close games throughout the year, and I think that that honestly just gave us a level of comfortability in a game that it’s a one-possession game, it’s a two-possession game, we’ve been in this spot before,” Hurley said. He said it was gut instinct not to call a timeout after the steal.
“With their size, their length, their ability to switch everything, it just felt like the window where you’ve just got to let March Madness take over,” he said. “March Magic.”
