WASHINGTON, D.C. – UConn’s Elite Eight victory was as unlikely as they come.
To mount a comeback like it did, against a team like that …
Braylon Mullins’ miracle 3-point shot from 37 feet, to give the Huskies a one-point lead with 0.4 seconds on the clock, will stand the test of time.
It wasn’t like UConn’s previous runs to back-to-back national championships in 2023 and 2024 – those teams simply “smashed everybody,” as coach Dan Hurley put it. This team has had to be clutch all season long, and it was well-prepared for the moment. The Huskies capitalized on every mistake through the final possession, when Duke’s Cayden Boozer made an errant attempt to advance the ball and UConn’s game-changing, though hobbled point guard, Silas Demary Jr., got up to get a hand on it. The humble captain Alex Karaban turned down a tough look for a better one from his freshman, and Mullins made magic.
It was the first-ever game-winning 3-point shot in the final second of an Elite Eight game. And the Greenfield, Indiana, native punched UConn’s ticket to Indianapolis.
Braylon Mullins sends UConn men’s basketball back to Final Four with last-second miracle shot
Duke, finishing its season 35-3, was the No. 1 overall seed for a reason. The Blue Devils – led by the physically imposing, likely top-three NBA Draft pick, Cameron Boozer – had the second-biggest roster in the country, including four other players expected to join Boozer in June’s NBA Draft. They were ranked No. 6 in efficiency on offense and No. 3 on defense, per KenPom, and were significantly favored (-130, according to FanDuel) to punch the East Region’s ticket to the Final Four at the outset of the tournament.
“Watching Duke on film, it was different than playing them in person. You were like, ‘Oh these dudes are good, these dudes are legit, it’s gonna be a good game,’” said center Tarris Reed Jr., who carried the Huskies with 26 points, nine rebounds and four blocks to continue his incredible March Madness run. “We were doubted, bro, it was like: ‘Duke is making it out the East no problem; we don’t know what type of team UConn is, they’re hurt, they’re weak right now; Tarris Reed isn’t good enough, he can’t do this for the team; they don’t have enough shooters…’”
“Just all types of stuff in the media you see,” he said. “Old me would’ve saw it and got broken down, but now you see it as fuel. There’s people out here really doubting us. The coach we have, the players we have, you just want to go out and get it. Just be hungry for it. That’s what we are. We’re hungry and we have two more to get.”
Duke started the game shooting 15-for-26 from the field and doubled-up the Huskies on the glass, 22-11, as its lead swelled to 19 for the first time with five minutes left in the first half. The Blue Devils led by 17 with 17:21 left; 11 with 7:59 left; nine with 5:03 left and five with 1:51 left in regulation.
Yet UConn, which led for just 51 seconds over the entirety of the game, was the team that left the arena jubilant, with its season still alive.
What did it take to pull it off?
“Strong men. It takes strong men. It takes a strong team. It takes a tough team. It takes strong men,” Hurley said.
“It takes a bunch of players that let us coach them, let us coach them hard. That starts in June. We run a very intense program. We’re on these guys. We stress them in practice. We put a lot of pressure on them on a daily basis to do the right things, to do everything at game speed, to do everything hard, to do everything tough, to be prepared because that’s what it takes to win games like this or to stay in a game like that where you’re getting outplayed. You’re having a really bad shooting night at the absolute worst time, but what kicks in at that point is just a bunch of strong men, a strong team, players that let their coaches coach them hard and prepare them for tough moments.”
It was the first time in 135 instances in NCAA Tournament history that a No. 1 seed lost after leading by at least 15 points at halftime.
The key plays that led to a shot that will be remembered forever in UConn’s long history of NCAA Tournament magic:
16:58 – Duke 50, UConn 36 – Mullins mid-range, and-one
He had just hit the same pull-up, mid-range jump shot on the possession prior, before Duke answered with an alley-oop connection to Patrick Ngongba. This time, Mullins got to the same exact spot near the baseline in front of the Huskies’ bench and Duke’s Isaiah Evans made a more aggressive contest. There looked to be contact on the shooting arm and in the landing zone before the ball went through the net anyway, sending Mullins – an 88.6% foul shooter – to the line to make it a 14-point game.
Less than 30 seconds later, Cameron Boozer missed a corner 3-pointer and Demary grabbed the long rebound to get out in transition for a give-and-go layup that cut the deficit to 12 with 16:29 to play.
13:09– Duke 55, UConn 45 – Reed breakaway dunk
UConn hadn’t been within single digits of the lead since the 7:29 mark in the first half. But, down 12 with 13:13 left in regulation, Reed read Cayden Boozer like a book. He stepped between the centering pass to Ngongba at the top of the arc, deflected it with his right arm and got off to the races, finishing the solo fastbreak with a two-handed jam.
“Coach gets mad at me all the time in practice, don’t steal, don’t reach, don’t play sometimes too aggressive when I can get easy fouls,” Reed said. “This is the game on the line. This is my career on the line. I was going for it all.”
Cameron Boozer made one of two at the foul line at the other end, and Reed found a cutting Karaban with a bounce pass through traffic for a layup that made it a nine-point game with 12:19 on the clock. The Huskies’ big man – named Most Outstanding Player of the East Regional, for good reason – found himself above the rim again for a second-chance dunk and a 6-1 run over two minutes that cut the deficit to seven.
7:00 – Duke 62, UConn 55 – Demary ends 3-point drought
Hurley was shocked to hear that UConn started the game just 1-for-18 from 3-point range. He said he kept asked his assistants what the number was, but they wouldn’t tell him. The Huskies’ fortune completely flipped at the seven-minute mark, when Silas Demary Jr., after diving into the scorer’s table to save the possession on his hobbled ankle, collected a long wraparound pass from Reed in the corner opposite the team’s bench. He hit the shot over a late contest from Cayden Boozer to bring the Huskies within seven with seven to go.
His shot was answered by Nikolas Khamenia, but Demary came down to the opposite corner and nailed one from there, too, to keep the deficit well within striking distance on the very next possession. UConn made four of its last five 3-point attempts to win the game.
3:42 – Duke 67, UConn 65 – Ball and-one layup in transition
Duke turned the ball over six times in the final 10 minutes. And UConn took advantage almost every time, outscoring the Blue Devils 16-0 off turnovers in the second half.
When Isaiah Evans fell down and lost the ball trying to drive past Demary, Solo Ball collected it in stride and only had Cameron Boozer to beat as he sprinted the length of the court. He put the shot up outside the restricted area, around Boozer’s block attempt and through contact to his arm, and was on his back flexing as it fell through the net. Ball made the free throw after a TV timeout and cut the deficit to just two as the Blue Devils went nearly three minutes without a made shot from the field.
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0:50 – Duke 70, UConn 69 – Captain Karaban comes up clutch
Alex Karaban, after the best three-game stretch of his career to start the NCAA Tournament, was having a night to forget for the first 39 minutes. The program’s all-time winningest player, trying to make his third Final Four trip in four years, he missed eight of his first nine shots and even fired an airball in the first half – “That was crazy, I don’t know what happened there,” he said.
But after he missed his first five 3-point attempts in the game, Hurley trusted his senior captain to come through in the biggest moment. He drew up a play that had Karaban curling around Reed, who screened both Cameron Boozer and Ngongba to clear a wide open look from the wing. Karaban was able to set his feet and nail the shot to get the Huskies within one with 50.5 seconds to play.
Boozer spun into a layup at the other end and Duke opted to foul up three, sending Demary to the line, where he made one of two before creating the deflection with six seconds left that led to Karaban feeding Mullins for the win.
“It takes everything in your soul to get the win,” Karaban said. “Just chipping away slowly, war-by-war, breaking them down. That’s what we wanted to do and that’s what we did.”
