PROVIDENCE – Friar Faithful spent more than two hours jumping around at Amica Mutual Pavilion Wednesday night and was ready to explode when Ryan Mela went behind the back for a transition layup to go up 11 with 3:12 left in regulation against the No. 4 UConn.
When Alex Karaban hit the 3-pointer to cut the Huskies’ deficit to two and Tarris Reed Jr. tied it with a putback lay-in with 12.3 seconds left, the building went quiet.
“We went on a little run and all of the momentum just shifted,” said fab freshman Braylon Mullins, who took hold of the moment and scored eight points on three shots in overtime before Silas Demary Jr. sealed the thrilling, 103-98, comeback victory with a mid-range dagger in enemy territory.
“When my man went behind the back in transition, that (bleep) felt done,” coach Dan Hurley said. “It’s a resilient team. There was never a look in the huddle with the players where they felt it was out of reach. But we’re UConn, so we think we’re supposed to win as long as the situation is winnable. We’re UConn.”
2025-2026 UConn looked like 2024-25 UConn with the way it played on the defensive end for most of the game, allowing the Friars to drive the ball in transition with ease and kick out to find open shooters, who made 14 of 24 from beyond the arc. The intensity of the heated rivalry played a factor as Providence led for 35 minutes and 40 seconds of game time, despite the Huskies making 14 of their program-record 18 3-pointers before the comeback at the end of regulation.
UConn cut its deficit to six points on six different occasions in the second half but couldn’t get the stops to shrink it further until they were absolutely necessary.
“We’re a championship program and we’re never gonna back down no matter what the circumstances are. We’re gonna keep pushing, keep fighting,” said Karaban, who finished with 23 points on 5 of 9 shooting from beyond the arc. “We’re gonna give everything we’ve got for 40, 45 minutes if it’s gotta be. Continue to learn how to not put ourselves in that position again, but I’m proud of the fight, I’m proud of the adversity we went through and I’m proud that we were able to find a way to win as a team.”
Demary was outstanding all night as he finished with 23 points on an efficient 7-for-11 shooting from the field, with 15 assists, five steals and only one turnover. Mullins produced a game-high 24 on 6-for-10 shooting from beyond the arc, 8-for-14 overall. And Reed, whose struggles helped the Friars dominate momentum in the first half, turned his night around to finish with 20 points and eight rebounds.
The win, UConn’s 11th in a row, improved the team to 15-1 on the season and 5-0 in Big East play.
“I was saying to the guys before the game, as great as we were in ’23 and ’24, those teams didn’t get to 15-1,” Hurley said. “What makes this group potentially special, obviously Jayden Ross coming back from a hamstring, this wasn’t the game for him, we had some guys struggle that have been great for us the whole year, but what separates this team is that we could survive one of our best players having– Solo (Ball) had not a good game and Tarris had a really bad first half. This wasn’t a great game for Malachi (Smith), Eric (Reibe) had his first kind of ‘freshman game’ as a center where it was a little bit much. But that’s what we knew we were getting in Silas, plus the defense.”
Ball started the game with a 3-pointer but missed seven of his next nine shots and was a striking minus-19 in 25 minutes. Reed only had four points on seven shots and three rebounds in the first half. And the Huskies’ bench was scoreless until Jaylin Stewart, who had five rebounds and was plus-18 for the game, made a 3-pointer that accelerated the comeback with 2:29 left in regulation.
UConn didn’t shoot a free throw in the first half, which likely led to Hurley’s conversation with a referee in the tunnel as he went in for halftime, earning his first technical foul of the year.
“I was in a conversation with one of the officials and it was give-and-take, and another official who wasn’t involved in any of the conversation was the one who inserted himself. That’s basically what happened,” Hurley explained, expressing a desire for the referees to be required to release a statement explaining their side of what happened.
So Providence was at the free throw line before the second half started.
But the Huskies’ fortune with the whistle turned as Reed drew a pair of quick fouls on the Big East’s leading shot-blocker, Oswin Erhunmwunse, which took him out of the game for a long stretch, though it allowed Duncan Powell to come in and keep the Huskies at arm’s distance from beyond the arc while Jamier Jones (18 points) continued to hit open shots.
Karaban started the comeback with a layup with 2:49 to play, then Stewart hit his 3 after a steal from Demary, who then stole the ball again and added two at the free throw line. Reed was responsible for UConn’s third takeaway in 36 seconds, which led to another Karaban layup to make it a two-point game with 1:32 left in regulation. Karaban traded 3s with Jaylin Sellers and missed his next attempt from beyond the arc, but Reed was there to clean it up and tie the game.
Former Husky Corey Floyd Jr., who scored all 12 of his points in the first half, missed a mid-range fadeaway for the win, sending the game to overtime.
Mullins made his first three shots, two 3-pointers, to key a 10-6 run at the start of the overtime period before Stewart found Reed for an open layup and Demary stepped back for the fadeaway mid-range shot that sealed it.
“The message at halftime was frustration. You’re not gonna win many games giving up 50% from the field, getting outrebounded (37-33), giving up 14-for-24 from the 3-point line,” Hurley said. “But I think great teams, I think championship teams, they can win all types of games. Championship teams can win with offense when they need it and they can win rock fights, too.”
