INDIANAPOLIS – The two-seed UConn men's basketball team (34-5) will play for a national title for the third time in four years after a suffocating 71-62 victory over three-seed Illinois (28-9) on Saturday night in the National Semifinal at the Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Huskies held the Illini's No. 1 ranked offense under 34 percent from the field and had six players score seven or more to improve to 7-1 all-time in Final Four semifinal games.

UConn led for over 35 minutes in the triumph, holding an advantage for the final 25 minutes of regulation and going up as many as 14 in the second half. A late Illinois charge got the Illini back within four twice inside of the final five minutes but the Huskies showed their will to win and answered every blow. Tarris Reed Jr. led the Huskies with his third double-double of the Big Dance, posting game-highs of 17 points and 11 rebounds. Coming off his iconic moment in the Elite Eight Braylon Mullins scored 15 points and knocked down four 4-pointers, including the game-icing troika inside of the final minute. Solo Ball joined them in double-digits with 13 points, knocking down three from distance and posting a team-best +19 plus/minus. 

Despite shooting only 35.5 percent today, Connecticut recorded a season-low four turnovers and knocked down 12 3-pointers, its most in an NCAA Tournament game this run. The Huskies limited Illinois to only three assists and swiped six steals, while out-performing Illinois at their greatest strength, the offensive glass, and out-scoring the Illini 10-6 in second chance points.  The win was Connecticut's 19^th-straight in the second weekend or later at the NCAA Tournament, a streak dating back to 2011.

Silas Demary Jr. stuffed the stat sheet and helped key UConn's defensive effort, scoring seven points with nine rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Alex Karaban finished with nine points, four rebound and four assists without a turnover, while Jayden Ross gave huge minutes off the bench and scored seven points, grabbed three rebounds and swiped a steal in 20 minutes. Keaton Wagler led Illinois with 20 but needed 16 shots to get there and turned it over three times while badgered by Demary Jr. and the Husky defense. Tomislav Ivisic was the other Illini in double figures with 16 points and seven rebounds, while Andrej Stojakovic added nine points and eight boards off the bench.

How it Happened

UConn opened the game with an 8-2 burst, powered by Mullins hitting from three on his first two attempts. After Illinois scored the next five to get back within one, the Huskies ripped off another 10-2 run that included a Demary Jr. put-back and a Ross triple before a vicious Reed Jr. slam put the Huskies up 18-9 and triggered an Illinois timeout at 13:20 of the opening stanza. 

Later in the half the Illini took advantage of a four-plus minute scoring run with a 7-0 run to take a 22-21 lead to the penultimate timeout of the first at 6:07. Reed Jr. snapped the run with a hook inside at 4:44 to re-take the lead, then scored again before a timeout at 3:04 and the Huskies back on top, 28-24. Back-to-back threes from Ball and Karabanafter the stoppage made it an 8-0 run and stretched the UConn lead to double-figures for the first time. The Huskies took a 37-29 lead to the half behind a combined 23 points from Mullins and Reed Jr. in the opening 20. 

Early 3-pointers in the second from Demary Jr. and Ball extended the lead, the latter from Ball in transition giving the Huskies a 47-36 edge ahead of the first media timeout of the second half. At 12:31, Ball hit again from downtown to snap a nearly three-minute minute scoring drought and put the Huskies up 52-40. 

At 9:44 of the second Jaylin Stewart cashed in a corner triple and gave UConn its largest lead of the day when it went up 57-43. The Illini answered again and took advantage of prolonged scoring drought to pull within six, and UConn called for time up 57-51 with 6:08 to play. After the timeout the teams traded stops before an Illinois bucket made it a 10-0 run ahead of a timeout at 5:00 and UConn up four. 

At 4:38 Reed Jr. snapped a five-plus minute dry spell for the Huskies with a basket inside, and a run-out slam for Ball off a long Karaban feed pushed the lead back to eight at 61-53. A 6-2 mini-run got the Illini back within four before they called for time with 1:38 to play. On UConn's next trip, Demary Jr. skied for a huge offensive rebound before the ball found Mullins for a 3-pointer with 52 seconds remaining that put the Huskies up 66-59. 

A Wagler 3-pointer on the next trip got it right back to four and Illinois called for time with 43.4 to play. Two free throws from Demary Jr. preceded Ross hitting one from the line, and the Huskies got a stop up seven with 14.5 to play. Reed Jr. hit two from the line to push the score to its final margin of nine, with Ross officially putting the game away with a steal on Illinois' final possession. 

Inside The Numbers

• Both teams had ineffective shooting days – UConn was 22-of-62 (35.5 percent) from the field but 12-of-33 (36.4 percent) from three and 15-of-17 (88.2 percent) from the line. Conversely, Illinois shot 19-of-56 (33.9 percent) from the field, 6-of-26 (23.1) from three and 18-of-23 (78.3) from the line
  • After an 8-of-26 start, UConn hit 6-of-8 to close the first half while holding Illinois to 34.5 percent shooting (10-29) in the opening 20
  • The Huskies hit double-digit 3-pointers for the 12^th time this season and first time since March 12 vs. Xavier in the BIG EAST quarterfinals
• Reed Jr. scored 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting, going a perfect 5-5 from the line
• The Huskies dished out 14 assists against a season-low four turnovers
• UConn was +4 in turnover margin and out-scored Illinois 8-4 off miscues
• The Huskies scored the game's only five transition points

News and Notes

• UConn improves to 5-1 all-time against Illinois and 2-0 in the postseason
• The Huskies are 77-33 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, 7-1 in the National Semifinal games and 13-1 on the Final Four stage
• Dan Hurley is 20-5 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 18-3 at UConn
• Karaban continued his remarkable run at Connecticut
  • Extended his program records for wins (126), games played (150), starts (149), minutes logged (4,869) and 3-pointers (289)
  • Became the lone active player to hit the 150 game played mark and one of nine players to hit the figure in BIG EAST history – of that group, his 149 starts are the most
  • Remains sixth in UConn history with 1,863 career points, 59 shy of Ray Allen (1,922) in the top-five
  • Is now 18-1 in the NCAA Tournament, the best mark of any player this century
  • His 18 NCAA Tournament wins tie Duke's Bobby Hurley for most in the modern era, three behind Christian Laettner's record of 21
• Mullins' second 3-pointer early in the first half was his 67^th this season, passing Karaban (66 in 2022-23) for third-most in a season for a UConn freshman all-time… he now has 69 and trails only Rip Hamilton (70, 96-97) and Khalid El-Amin (81, 97-98) 
• Reed Jr. posted his third double-double of the NCAA Tournament, 13^th of the season and the 23^rd of his career
• In five NCAA Tournament games, Reed Jr. is averaging 20.8 points and 13.0 rebounds
  • The only other players to have at least 104 points and 65 rebounds in five NCAA Tournament games during the modern seeding era (1979-on) are Zach Edey (2024) and Larry Bird (1979)
• The Huskies won their eighth-straight against a member of the Big Ten and have taken six-straight against the B1G in the NCAA Tournament
• Regardless of opponent, UConn will wear blue on Monday - Connecticut has won its last 23 postseason games in its throwback white uniforms 

Up Next

The Huskies will take on the winner of Arizona and Michigan on Monday night at 8:50 p.m. in pursuit of their seventh national title.