NEW YORK – Braylon Mullins led the UConn men’s basketball team to its second Big East Tournament championship game in three years with 21 points during a 67-51 semifinal win over No. 11 seed Georgetown at Madison Square Garden Friday night.
The win set up the inevitable rubber match with reigning dual-champion St. John’s on Saturday night as the Huskies’ look for their ninth tournament title, which would break the tie with the Hoyas for the most all-time. The No. 1 seed Red Storm (ranked No. 13 nationally) advanced with a 78-69 win over No. 4 Seton Hall in the early semifinal.
“Both programs have really pushed each other the whole year,” coach Dan Hurley said. “We’re a 29-win team, they’re a 27-win team. I mean, two of the best teams in the country. Obviously it’s going to be a death match for the Big East championship, but also, both of us have really delivered for this league in a year where this league needs a game like this that everyone that’s a basketball fan’s going to be dialed into. So, yeah, it’s exciting. You knew there was going to be a third round and here we are.”
UConn, 29-4 on the season and the sixth-ranked team in the country, improved to 2-4 in the Big East semifinal round under Hurley.
Georgetown’s run, only the second No. 11 seed to make the semifinal round (Villanova, 2004), came to an end after wins over No. 6 seed DePaul and No. 3 seed Villanova. It was a 3-0 sweep of the season series for the Huskies, who only beat the Hoyas by a combined five points in the regular season.
Mullins set the tone early, finding a rhythm with his go-to mid-range jumper and scoring seven of the team’s first nine points. He shot 7-for-12 from the floor in the first half and became the first UConn freshman to reach the 20-point mark in the Big East Tournament since Jerome Dyson also scored 21 in 2007.
“Making my first two shots, after the shot-clock violation incident at the beginning of the game, Coach was running sets and I just found a little rhythm inside the paint. They were running me off the line so yeah, just making difficult shots and they were all going in. It just happens with the flow of the game and I’m so happy we got out of here with a win,” Mullins told the Courant.
It was the first game he’s scored more than 11 points in a game since he set his career-high at 25 in the Feb. 18 loss to Creighton.
“It does (feel different coming in the tournament), it means more,” he said. “Having contributions from not just myself but everybody else, it brings the group together and I think we all collectively wanted this one bad and we wanted to play (Saturday) night.”
Point guard Silas Demary Jr., who directed the offense to 47.5% shooting from the floor, was the only other Huskies to reach double-figure scoring as he finished with 10 points, nine rebounds and four assists. He outrebounded star center Tarris Reed Jr., who was a team-best plus-26, only needing to score six points and grab seven boards as he dished a career-high eight assists.
“We said it was opposite day,” Reed said, beaming. “He got the boards, I got the assists today, so that’s pretty cool. That just shows what type of team we are.”
UConn’s depth came through for the second game in a row as Jayden Ross and Eric Reibe provided eight points a piece off the bench, with Alex Karaban and Solo Ball hitting timely shots as they both finished with seven.
The Huskies built their lead to double-figures after a Karaban layup with seven minutes left in the first half and kept it there for most of the game. Georgetown picked up momentum twice in the second half and went on runs that trimmed it to an eight-point difference, but Ross connected on 3-pointers from the corner to swing the momentum back both times.
UConn finished the game with a 35-24 advantage on the glass and held the Hoyas to 38% shooting for the game, just 2-for-16 from beyond the arc. Reed had three of the team’s six blocks in the first half.
After shooting just 2-for-11 from beyond the 3-point line themselves in the first half, Ball, Mullins and Demary connected on three of the team’s first four attempts to start the second. Georgetown made six of its first eight shots from the floor after the break, but the Huskies’ shot-making at the other end prevented any major momentum swings.
It was the second wire-to-wire victory in a row for the Huskies, who beat No. 10 seed Xavier, 93-68, in Thursday’s quarterfinal.
Saturday will be the third time UConn and St. John’s meet with a Big East Tournament championship on the line. UConn won the title in 1999, 82-63, and the Johnnies took it the following year, 80-70.
St. John’s won its fourth tournament title last year.
“This is why you choose to come to UConn,” Reed said. “You want to be in these big-time games and really win championships. Looking back on my college career, speaking personally, I haven’t won any type of championship, so came here, worked, put our head down–”
“Yet,” Hurley interjected.
“Yet,” Reed agreed.
The big man was critical to UConn’s 72-40 embarrassment of the Johnnies when they last met at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford. It was one of the worst losses of coach Rick Pitino’s Hall of Fame career as his team missed its last 24 shots from the field. That game came after the Johnnies dominated UConn in the paint at MSG on Feb. 6 and snapped the Huskies’ 18-game winning streak.
“The thing with this one is it’s a no-day prep… We’ll try to prioritize a little bit of sleep, but there’s not a whole lot you’re going to be able to do. You’re going to wake up tomorrow and there’s going to be breakfast. I don’t imagine either team’s going to shoot around. We’re both going to probably try to save our legs. Maybe you’ll do a walkthrough at the hotel, you’ll watch film, and for the type of game it’s going to be, you’re going to want your players to be as fresh as possible,” Hurley said.
“It’s a privilege to get on the court tomorrow night. And, I mean, listen, somebody’s walking out with the tunnel with nothing and somebody is getting confetti dropped on their head tomorrow.”
