There are moments in March that you remember, that you likely see on replay over and over again. Each and every one of us can probably pick multiple moments that they remember. Almost every March creates a few of them. Sunday afternoon had that moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With 9 minutes left in the first half, Duke was ahead of UConn by 5 points, 26-21. Then, the Blue Devils went on a 14-0 run. After watching Michigan won by 32 points, the Lunatic figured this game was over. The #1 team in the country is up 19 points. We are simply waiting for the clock strike zero so we can appoint the Blue Devils the East Regional champion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was so bad that since it was around dinner time, I told Elizabeth and Katie they could watch Jumanji because it probably wouldn’t be that fun to watch Duke blow out the Huskies. I turned the game on my computer just so I could track it, but was only paying partial attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After all, the lead was still 14 points after the first TV time out. With 11 minutes left, Tarris Reed Jr made a dunk to cut the lead to 7. Suddenly, the Lunatic’s attention grew. Cameron Boozer would hit a few baskets to extend the lead to 11. Considering that UConn only made 1 of their first 18 three-pointers in the game, that felt like too big of a lead to comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, Silas Demary Jr hit two three-pointers from the corner, and suddenly the lead was back down to 7. Isaiah Evans made two free throws with around 5 minutes to go to extend the Duke lead to 9 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Huskies’ Solo Ball hit a layup to cut the lead to 7, and then Alex Karaban made a nice drive down the lane and a pretty pass to Tarris Reed Jr for a layup to cut the lead to 5. Then, Solo Ball steals a pass from Isaiah Evans, drives down the court, makes a pretty layup and gets fouled by Cameroon Boozer. After hitting the free-throw, the lead was now down to a nail-biting 2 points with just under 4 minutes to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can’t remember when they announced this, but CBS might have given the announcers’ kiss of death. They flashed a statistic that #1 seeds that led by 15+ points at half-time were something like 146-0 in the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cameron Boozer kept trying to hang onto the lead as he hit a jumper in the lane to extend the lead to 4. And after Nikolas Khamenia drove to the basket and missed, Patrick Ngongba hit a free throw to extend the lead to 5 minutes with less than 2 minutes to play. The Huskies looked like they were going to simply run out of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Solo Ball hit a free throw to cut the lead to 4, Tarris Reed Jr steals the ball away from Cameron Boozer, and the Huskies find Alex Karaban on the wing for a three-pointer. The senior had missed all 5 of his attempts for the day, but with everything on the line, Karaban came off the screen and drilled the three-pointer. The Huskies have cut the lead to 1 with 50 seconds to play!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Blue Devils started to run down the shot clock and they got the ball into their star, Cameron Boozer. And Boozer did what he had done for most of the night, and what you would expect from a star player when the game is on the line. Boozer got the ball at the top of the key, drove the side of the lane, made a pretty spin move to get free in the middle of the lane a couple of feet from the basket and hit the shot to give Duke a 3 point lead. UConn calls timeout to set up a play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You would have figured that it would be a quick drive to the basket unless they get an open 3. As they take the ball up the court, the Duke defense stymies the Huskies, and the clock keeps running down. It looked like Silas Demary Jr was going to try to drive to the basket with about 10 seconds left. But Demary Jr got fouled, and then shockingly missed the first free-throw. He would regroup to hit the second free throw to cut the lead to 2. And so the stage was set for the Madness to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Duke’s Dame Sarr gets the ball into Cameron Boozer and UConn immediately tries to trap him to force a turnover. Boozer breaks the trap and passes it back to Sarr under the basket, and I said, “They have to foul to stop the clock.” But the keep-away game had begun. Sarr passed the ball up to Cayden Boozer, who looks up court and tries to throw the pass deep to run the clock out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Silas Demary Jr blocks the pass up in the air and Braylon Mullins runs the ball down around mid-court. With time running out, he passes the ball up the court to Alex Karaban. But Cameron Boozer immediately got into Karaban’s face to stop his momentum, so with 3 seconds, Karaban passes it back to Mullins at the center court logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mullins is a freshman from Greenville-Central High School, a city 20 miles west from Indianapolis. He was a Mr. Basketball in Indiana before coming to Connecticut. With the clock running out, Mullins launches the three-pointer from the logo and it hits nothing but net with 0.4 seconds left on the clock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Washington, D.C. goes crazy. Duke’s last gasp desperation pass gets knocked down by UConn, and Braylon Mullins hits a three-pointer from the March Madness logo to get the opportunity to go home to Indianapolis with his teammates from University of Connecticut to play in the Final Four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will be a play that we will see for years. A number one team loses a 15+ point lead for the first time in history when a freshman steals the ball as his team is trying to simply foul to stop the clock and hits a three-pointer from the logo to win the game for the Huskies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You simply can not make this stuff up. Congratulations to the UConn Huskies for their historic 19 point comeback against the #1 team in the country. They will be heading to Indianapolis for the Final Four, where they will meet the Illinois Fighting Illini for a chance to play in the National Championship!!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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