UConn froze an 18-point meltdown by scoring its last six points at the foul line, escaping Newark with a 69-64 win that keeps the Huskies alone atop the Big East and pushes their winning streak to a baker’s dozen.
How the Huskies almost gave it away—and why they didn’t
Seventeen minutes into the second half, UConn led 42-24 and the Prudential Center crowd was booing the home team. By the 48-second mark, Mike Williams III’s corner triple had slashed the gap to 65-64 and the building was shaking. The Huskies’ response: zero field goals, six straight clutch free throws, and a freshman’s fingertip block that flipped momentum back to the nation’s No. 3 team.
Silas Demary Jr. sank four of those six foul shots in the final 29 seconds, finishing with 14 points and ice in his veins. Tarris Reed Jr. supplied the other two, capping a 21-point, 8-rebound night that punished Seton Hall’s smaller front line all evening. The sequence preserved a 69-64 victory, pushed UConn to 17-1 overall, 7-0 in the Big East, and extended the country’s longest active winning streak to 13 games.
The collapse: 5:40 without a basket
UConn’s offense flat-lined down the stretch, missing its last eight shots from the floor. Yet the drought never became a death sentence because:
- Ball security: only one turnover in the final six minutes
- Board control: Reed & Co. grabbed four offensive rebounds in the last 4:00 to burn extra seconds
- Foul-line precision: 12-for-12 on free throws after halftime, 8-for-8 in the final 2:03
“We’ve been in close games before—this group doesn’t rattle,” Reed said afterward, a nod to a roster that already owns road wins over North Carolina and Kansas this season.
Karaban climbs the record books while nobody notices
Lost in the frantic finish: Alex Karaban logged his 128th career start, tying Taliek Brown for second place in program history, and passed 1,600 career points to move into 18th on UConn’s all-time scoring list. The 6-8 forward finished with 13 points and drew the defensive assignment on Williams during the decisive possession, forcing the Pirates’ hottest shooter an extra foot behind the arc—just enough room for Braylon Mullins to come flying off the weak side.
Seton Hall’s math problem
The Pirates entered 14-2 and 4-1 in league play, fueled by a league-best 38.9 percent three-point accuracy. Tuesday they went 1-for-16 (6.3 percent) from deep, the worst long-range night under coach Shaheen Holloway. Even with UConn conceding mid-range jumpers, the 25-point swing from expected to actual perimeter output was the difference between a résumé-building upset and a 0-for-4 skid against ranked teams this season.
Adam Clark (12 pts) and Najai Hines (10 pts) helped trim the deficit, but Holloway’s club shot 37 percent overall and surrendered 16 second-chance points. The loss drops Seton Hall to 14-3, 4-2 in the Big East, and likely out of next week’s AP poll just one rating cycle after re-entering at No. 25 for the first time since March 2022.
Bracket fallout and seeding stakes
UConn now owns five Quad-1 victories and the nation’s No. 2 NET score, strengthening its grip on a projected No. 1 seed in the NCAA’s official bracket preview. The Huskies also sit two games clear of Marquette and Creighton in the loss column with 12 league games left.
Seton Hall, meanwhile, falls to 1-4 vs. Quad-1 opponents and 0-3 against the Big East’s top tier. The Pirates’ NET (38) still keeps them in at-large range, but Saturday’s home date with Butler becomes a must-win to avoid sliding onto the bubble before January ends.
What’s next
- UConn visits Georgetown (7-11, 0-6) on Saturday at noon ET, seeking its first 8-0 Big East start since the 2013-14 national-title season.
- Seton Hall hosts Butler (12-5, 3-3) Saturday at 2 p.m., desperate to keep pace in the muddled middle of the conference standings.
Tip-off times and broadcast info are available on the Big East official schedule.
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