the sixth-largest comeback in NCAA tournament history<\/a>, a mark that VCU set against Duke\u2019s rival UNC in the first round. It marks the first time a No. 1 seed lost in the NCAA tournament after leading by 15-plus points at halftime. Such teams were previously 134-0.<\/p>\nAnd it ends Duke\u2019s NCAA tournament and championship hopes in heartbreak for a second straight tournament following last year\u2019s late breakdown in a Final Four loss to Houston.<\/p>\n
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The Huskies, meanwhile are headed to the Final Four for the third time in four seasons. The last two times UConn got there, it won the national championship.<\/p>\n
UConn joins Arizona, Michigan and Illinois in the Final Four. It will play Illinois in Saturday\u2019s national semifinal.<\/p>\n
![\"Head](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/43369c4c-1a27-47cb-9fba-497b433606d2.jpeg\"\/)
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Head coach Dan Hurely celebrates with Braylon Mullins after Mullins’ game-winning shot.<\/p>\n
(Scott Taetsch via Getty Images)Duke seized early control<\/p>\n
The game looked like Duke\u2019s to lose from the opening minutes. The Blue Devils opened the game with a 22-12 advantage. A 14-0 run extended that lead 40-21. At the break, Duke held a 44-29 lead, handing UConn its largest halftime deficit of the season.<\/p>\n
But UConn slowly chipped away after the break. It posted a 16-6 run to cut Duke\u2019s lead to 56-49. A Solo Ball and-1 layup cut Duke\u2019s advantage to 67-65 with 3:42 remaining.<\/p>\n
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Karaban delivers despite struggles<\/p>\n
Alex Karaban, an All Big East forward who started on UConn\u2019s previous two NCAA championship teams, started the game 0 for 6 from the field. He didn\u2019t score until the second half.<\/p>\n
But when his number was called late, he answered. Karaban, who\u2019s hit big shots throughout his NCAA tournament career, pulled up for a 3 and hit with 50.5 seconds remaining to cut Duke\u2019s lead to 70-69.<\/p>\n
Cam Boozer answered on the other end with a jumper to extend Duke\u2019s lead back to 72-69. But it wasn\u2019t enough to fend off Mullins\u2019 late heroics that were set up by Semary\u2019s 1-for-2 trip at the line with 10 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
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Tarris Reed Jr. keeps UConn in the game<\/p>\n
While Duke built its big early lead, All Big East forward Tarris Reed Jr. kept the UConn ship steady. He took the court as UConn\u2019s only inside answer to Duke\u2019s dominant frontcourt led by Boozer and flanked by Patrick Ngongba and Maliq Brown.<\/p>\n
Reed was unfazed by Duke\u2019s defense and led UConn with 26 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks while shooting 10 of 16 from the field. Boozer countered with a strong line of 27 points, 8 rebounds 4 assists and 2 blocks. But his buckets didn\u2019t come easy as he regularly met resistance from Reed.<\/p>\n
Karaban had a poor game by his or any standard. He tallied just 5 points while shooting 2 of 10 from the field. He shot 1 of 6 from 3, contributing to UConn\u2019s 1-of-18 start from long distance. But he didn\u2019t shrink when UConn needed him, and the Huskies don\u2019t advance without his late 3.<\/p>\n
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UConn ultimately rallied to shoot 5 of 23 (22%) from 3, none bigger, of course, than Mullins\u2019 game winner. Mullins finished the game with 10 points and one of the biggest shots in NCAA tournament history.<\/p>\n
Duke outshot UConn from the field, 52% to 44% and secured a 34-28 advantage on the boards. But it lost the turnover battle 13-5. And its final turnover of the game proved to be one too many.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UConn looked down and out in an Elite Eight matchup against Duke on Sunday that was billed as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15853,80475,33087,4,450,245966,56183,56192,2843,451,5629,56190,1303,398,234723,3789,3,46748,46747,452,453,15857],"class_list":["post-553285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-alex-karaban","tag-boozer","tag-braylon-mullins","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cam-boozer","tag-cayden-boozer","tag-dame-sarr","tag-duke","tag-headlines","tag-illinois","tag-maliq-brown","tag-michigan","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-march-madness","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-news","tag-solo-ball","tag-tarris-reed-jr","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-uconn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}