PHILADELPHIA- No. 2 UConn men’s basketball knocked off No. 7 UCLA 73-57 in the Round of 32 to punch its ticket to the Sweet 16. Alex Karaban scored a career-high 27 points, fueling the Huskies to the program’s 20th Sweet 16.
Before the game, Silas Demary Jr. and Jaylin Stewart were listed as questionable. Both suited up and warmed up before the game, as they did before the Furman game, where they did not play.
This time, Demary Jr. came off the bench and played 22 minutes, while Stewart remained out. Hurley mentioned that the point guard was on a minutes restriction of 20, that they exceeded.
Braylon Mullins added 17 points, hitting his first postseason three despite missing his first three shots. Tarris Reed Jr. followed up his historic game with 10 points and 13 rebounds, missing some time with two fouls in the first half. Jayden Ross chipped in 11 points off the bench to help the Huskies stay in it across the first.
UConn (31-5) used a pair of big scoring runs in the second half in the victory effort. This marks the third time that the Huskies will be playing in the Sweet 16 since Dan Hurley took over the program, joining the two national championship years of 2023 and 2024.
UCLA (24-12) had been playing some of its best basketball heading into the dance. They overcame a late UCF push to win their first-round game and played without leading scorer Tyler Bilodeau in both NCAA Tournament games.
The Bruins opened the game with the lead after some Husky mistakes. UConn secured the opening tip but turned the ball over, allowing Skyy Clark to get a fastbreak finish for a quick first bucket. The first UConn points came courtesy of an Alex Karaban slam on a nice find from Solo Ball. Both sides traded blows early, but UCLA built an early 14-11 lead.
Karaban finished a three-point play after the first media timeout to get up to a quick eight points. He also passed Corny Thompson for sixth place on the UConn all-time scoring list. He was far more assertive than he’d been
Demary checked in for the first time at the 14:15 mark and played 3:30 for his first segment, looking healthy. He missed his lone shot attempt during that stretch, a three, but UConn was still in striking distance when he departed, down 16-12.
The next few minutes were sluggish for both teams. Malachi Smith, making his second straight start, hit the first non-Karaban field goal for the Huskies when he finished a nice driving layup, then proceeded to force a turnover to give the Huskies the ball down 20-17 at the next media timeout, showing a lot of emotion as he headed to the sidelines.
Ross built off that emotion, knocking down a three-pointer plus the foul out of the stoppage. He missed the free throw, knotting things up at 20. After UCLA split a pair of free throws, Ross came down and hit a three on the next trip as well, and followed that up with three free throws on the following possession. He exited after the third foul shot to a loud ovation, having scored nine straight Husky points to put them up 26-23.
Mullins knocked down a pair of threes towards the end of the first half after starting the tournament 0-11. This helped UConn take a 38-33 lead into the locker room despite nine first-half turnovers. The rebounding battle was close at the break before the Huskies pulled away in the second.
The Bruins would come out of the locker room with a sense of urgency, scoring six straight points to take the lead before Karaban snatched it back with some free throws. A Clark three followed by a Karaban post finish would knot things up at 42 by the under-16 media timeout. The captain scored UConn’s first eight points of the second frame.
UCLA hit a quick bucket on the inbounds play, but after that, it was all UConn for a stretch. The Huskies rattled off nine straight points with seven of them coming from Karaban to take their largest lead at the time, 51-44. Karaban canned his third three-pointer to give him 22 points before Cronin called a timeout to reassess things.
The run continued, capping off at 14-0 thanks to another triple from Karaban. After failing to score more than 14 points in any of his previous 14 NCAA Tournament games, this marked back-to-back in which he eclipsed 20.
The Bruins wouldn’t go away, taking a 10-2 run into the under-8 timeout and building momentum, only trailing by four at 58-54. After both sides traded a couple of empty possessions, Mullins was fouled shooting a three and drilled all three at the line to grow the lead back to seven, then a Ross slam got it to nine inside five minutes to go.
After UCLA came up empty again, Cronin was hit with a technical foul that not only got the UConn lead back to double digits, but gave Karaban a new career high with 27. Another Mullins basket grew the lead to 13 and forced another Cronin timeout with 4:18 to play, and the Huskies were up 67-54.
The lead stayed in double digits the rest of the way, as UConn finished with a hard-fought 73-57 win. Despite turning it over a season-high tying 15 times, the Huskies were able to hold off the Bruins and keep on dancing through March.
Next up, the Huskies are set to face No. 3 seed Michigan State in the Sweet 16 in Washington, D.C., on Friday. Tip-off is set for 9:45 p.m. from Capital One Arena and will be televised on CBS.
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