UConn stuns Duke with Braylon Mullins’ deep 3 to cap wild comeback, return to Final Four

WASHINGTON – Braylon Mullins swished a 3-pointer from near half court with 0.4 seconds left and second-seeded UConn erased a 19-point deficit and stunned top-seeded Duke 73-72 Sunday to go to the Final Four for the third time in four years.

The victory that earned the Huskies’ eighth trip to the Final Four might go down as the most remarkable in program history.

Duke (35-3) controlled the first 30 minutes and looked as if it could cruise into the Final Four for a second straight year behind national player of the year favorite Cameron Boozer, who scored 27 points.

The Blue Devils had a two-point lead with 10 seconds left and the ball after Silas Demary Jr. made one of two from the line for UConn (33-5). All the Blue Devils needed to do was inbound the ball and maybe knock down a couple of free throws.

They threw too many passes, and the ball ended up in Mullins’ hands with the clock winding down. Nothing left to do but shoot – and the freshman made his only 3 of the game to give the Huskies their first lead since 2-0.

“I threw the ball to (Alex Karaban), and I thought he was going to shoot the shot,” Mullins said. “But then he threw it back to me, there’s two or three seconds left, and I’ve got to shoot it.

“And man, it just went right through the net.”

Duke’s desperation inbounds heave the length of the court was batted away with two hands by Alex Karaban, the winningest player in the history of UConn men’s basketball. Victory No. 125 for Karaban, who already has two national championship rings for the Huskies, was somehow complete.

The Huskies mobbed their captain at center court, and for the second straight season, Duke’s season ended with a painful late-game collapse.

Last year it was in the Final Four to Houston, denying Cooper Flagg a chance to play for a national title. This time it was one step earlier, and it was likely the end of Cameron Boozer’s brief but spectacular college career, sooner than coach Jon Scheyer and Duke had hoped.

Duke-UConn was the headliner regional final of the weekend, matching programs with 11 national titles between them. Michigan blew out Tennessee earlier in the day in the Midwest Region, and it seemed Duke was on track for similar domination.

Instead, Blue Devils-Huskies became the game of this NCAA Tournament, with what is likely to be the shiniest moment of this March no matter how things play out next weekend in Indianapolis.

Oh yeah, about that. UConn will play Illinois next Saturday in the national semifinals.

While Mullins will go down in history, the comeback never would have happened without Tarris Reed Jr. UConn’s center finished with 26 points and nine rebounds and was the only reason the Huskies ever had a chance, carrying a team that couldn’t buy a 3-pointer – until they needed them the most.

Karaban made his first 3 of the game for UConn with 50 seconds left to cut a lead that was 11 with just under 13 minutes left in regulation down to 70-69.

Cameron Boozer responded in the paint on the other end to push it to three again, and Duke fouled Demary on the floor with 10 seconds left to send him to the line. He made one.

Duke just needed to execute one more time. Didn’t happen. Dame Sarr found Cayden Boozer inside half court, a perfect guy to take a foul, but Cameron’s twin tried one more pass that was deflected by Demary. Mullins got the ball and passed to Karaban, who went back to Mullins. He let it go from about 35 feet. Nothing but net.

Michigan rolls to Final Four

Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg, who looked every bit the Big Ten Player of the Year, slammed the ball a mile over his head in celebration as the buzzer sounded. The Wolverines’ bench and throng of fans erupted into euphoria. The Final Four spot this team seemed destined for all season was finally in their grasp.

And it was only halftime.

No. 1 seed Michigan defeated No. 6 seed Tennessee 95-62 to win the Midwest Regional and advance to Indianapolis. It’s the program’s ninth Final Four, first since 2018 and first under second-year head coach Dusty May, who led Florida Atlantic to the Final Four in 2023.

This one was over long before the Wolverines cut down the nets in the United Center, in front of an overwhelming majority of maize-and-blue fans. Michigan led 48-26 at halftime thanks to a blistering 21-0 run midway through the first half. That five-minute stretch swung a two-point Tennessee lead into a 19-point Michigan lead, blowing the game wide open. The margin climbed as high as 34 in the final minutes.

The first-half run was a fitting capsule of what the Wolverines have done all season. Michigan was a dominant, big-ball behemoth that bludgeoned its way to a Big Ten regular-season title and paced the sport alongside fellow No. 1 seeds Duke and Arizona. Now, with a single-season program record of 35 wins and only three losses, it will have a chance to win the second men’s basketball national championship in school history.

Lendeborg, the team’s 6-foot-8 Swiss Army knife, continued his stellar March Madness with 27 points (10 of 19 from the field), seven rebounds and four assists. It was part of a 50-point weekend for Lendeborg over the course of two games, further burnishing his “Dominican LeBron” nickname. Fellow skyscrapers Aday Mara (7-foot-3) and Morez Johnson Jr. (6-9) each scored in double figures and helped limit Tennessee to just 32 % from the floor and 12 of 25 on shots at the rim. Michigan had eight blocks.

The Vols were led by 21 points by guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie but shot just 5 of 26 from 3-point range.

It ended a third straight Elite Eight trip in disappointment for the Vols, who have still yet to reach a Final Four in program history.

Head coach Rick Barnes has fully shed the March struggles that seemed to plague stretches of his career, but a national semifinal trip continues to elude Tennessee. The Vols have 34 all-time NCAA Tournament wins, the most for any program without a Final Four.

But the story was Michigan, and a win that sets up a heavyweight semifinal bout against Arizona, matching two of the biggest, baddest and best teams all season.

That one should go 12 rounds. On Sunday, the Wolverines delivered a first-half knockout.