On Jan. 4, 2023, No. 4 UConn came to the Amica Mutual Pavilion and was upset by the Providence Friars.
Three years later, it seemed that we would get the same outcome. However, the Huskies (15-1, 5-0 Big East) stole a win at Providence (8-7, 1-3 Big East) in overtime, 103-98, to stay unbeaten in conference play.
Silas Demary Jr. had his best game in a UConn uniform with a 23-point, 15-assist double-double, his first since his first-career triple-double against Bryant. He was relentless on both ends, adding five steals—every one of them coming at a key moment. To put it into perspective for how important Demary was in the thrilling win, he scored or assisted on 64 of the Huskies’ points. He became the first Big East player since 2017 with at least 20 points and 15 assists in a regular-season game.
“That’s what makes the team have a chance to be special,” Dan Hurley said. “That’s what we knew we were getting in Silas, plus the defense. I mean, the guy’s a ballhawk.”
Until Wednesday night, UConn’s defense had been regarded as one of the best in the country. That changed when the Huskies gave up 47 points in the first half and 98 overall on 50% shooting.
“Our first half defense was really bad,” Alex Karaban said after the game. “Second half defense—we miscommunicated on a bunch of stuff. I think we dialed it up defensively…We just started to play with that identity that we’ve been established to play at over practices.”
Karaban proved his championship experience, as he has repeatedly. The two-time national champion finished the night with 23 points on 8-of-18 shooting, with an impressive 5-of-9 mark from downtown.
“I learned why he’s a two-time national champion,” Demary said, who praised Karaban’s resiliency and his ability not to let shots bother him.
UConn did itself no favors by turning the ball over 11 times (seven in the first half) and shot 49.3% overall. You would think that with the Huskies making a program record 18 3-pointers, they would have no problem winning, but the Friars had a second consecutive upset on their minds.
Providence went on a 21-4 run late in the first half that got the Friars’ lead up to 13 with 54 seconds remaining in the first half, tying the largest deficit of the season for Connecticut (Arizona).
To make matters worse, Dan Hurley picked up his first technical foul of the season right before the second half started. UConn athletic director David Benedict said that the technical foul occurred “shortly after leaving the court.”
“I’ve never gotten a technical [foul] in the tunnel, by the coaches’ locker room,” Hurley said. “I was in a conversation with one of the officials, and it was give and take, and then just another official that wasn’t involved in any of the conversation was the one who inserted himself. I mean, that’s basically what happened.”
Former Husky Corey Floyd Jr. torched the Huskies in the first half with 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting, with two of the made shots from downtown. Even though UConn’s defense was not at its best, Floyd did not score for the rest of the game.
A season after having the best game of his career at the Amica Mutual Pavilion, Tarris Reed Jr. had his worst half of the season in the first 20 minutes, but a promising second half had him finish the night with 20 points and eight rebounds, including the game-tying basket to force overtime. He played most of the game in foul trouble, including four fouls beginning with 5:45 remaining in regulation.
“I was really just trying to be more poised on the defensive end, knowing I have four fouls,” Reed said. “I heard Coach Kimani [Young] all game: ‘Be technical. You got to be technical.’”
The starting lineup did most of the work as UConn only had three bench points to Providence’s 41. Those three points came from Jaylin Stewart, who finished the game with a game-high +18 plus/minus rating.
“His impact isn’t showing what he did on the stat sheet, but his impact, I mean, helped us win that game,” Karaban said.
Braylon Mullins set a new career-high in points with 24 points to lead all scorers, knocking down six 3-pointers and shooting 8-of-14 from the floor. He has proven to be a road warrior so far, coming up clutch in the two most difficult road games for Connecticut (the other being Kansas, where he had 17 points). He had eight points on three made shots in overtime.
“He’s a fearless freshman,” Karaban said. “He doesn’t play like a freshman at all, just how fearless he is out there, and just the way he’s able to score. He’s an underrated defender, and he’s just created so much offensively for us.”
The 13-point comeback to win marks the third consecutive year that UConn has come back from that many points to beat Providence (hat-tip to Puneet Nanda on X).
Connecticut is now 52-31 against the Friars, with Hurley improving to 8-3 against Providence as the head coach at UConn. Providence head coach Kim English has yet to beat the Huskies, as a coach and as a player (he faced UConn in the 2009 Elite Eight with Missouri).
The Huskies will have a quick turnaround as they face DePaul on Saturday at the PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, Conn.