BOSTON — On a large LED display board hanging outside TD Garden, a temporary advertisement greeted fans on Friday night.
“WELCOME TO STORRS NORTH,” the sign read in bright capitalized letters next to an enlarged image of Silas Demary Jr. holding a basketball on his shoulder.
Inside, every time Michigan ran out of the tunnel and onto the court to warm up, a sea of boos rained down on the Wolverines. The same happened each time a fan sporting “Michigan Maize” or fashioning their fingers into the shape of an ‘M’ was displayed on the gargantuan scoreboard hanging over midcourt
When Michigan guard Trey McKenney sent the final shot of the first half off the front of the rim to send the Huskies into halftime with a 43-30 lead, the crowd rewarded UConn’s defensive stand with a “Big Red” chant, drowning out the music blasting in the arena as they loudly spelled out the school’s name.
“U-C-O-N-N. UConn, UConn, UConn.”
Though the 2026 National Championship rematch came under the tag of the TNT Sports Hall of Fame Series Boston, that moniker merely masked its true identity: a quasi-UConn home game.
The No. 4 Huskies (2-0) took advantage of the friendly crowd and held onto that first half lead, taking down No. 16 Michigan (1-1), 85-77.
“The environment was great,” UConn guard Braylon Mullins said. “I know UConn brings a crowd, so it was definitely exciting. I’m hoping many more games in the future, it’s like that again.”
The Wolverines sprinted out of the gates with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it score just six seconds into the contest, with senior point guard Elliot Cadeau rocketing a pass off the tip in the direction of junior Moustapha Thiam. The 7-foot-2 center corralled the pass midair and finished the play with a dunk.
That was the last time the Wolverines held a lead. Just 24 seconds later, Mullins swished a three-pointer to put the Huskies up one.
UConn forward Nik Khamenia followed that up with a layup, and Demary Jr. added his first two points on a jumper to complete an early 7-0 Huskies run less than five minutes into the contest. While Cadeau scored five straight to tie the game — the final time Michigan would do so — Mullins sent another three-pointer up and good to send the Huskies into the first media timeout up by three.
From there, Demary Jr. took over for the remainder of the first half. Sinking a transition three after an Oskar Giltay defensive rebound out of the break, the Big East Preseason Player of the Year went on to score 11 more points the rest of the half to finish the period with 17.
Michigan held pace early with a steady dose of layups, including a pair from fifth-year guard Roddy Gayle Jr. to keep it close at 18-14 with 10:47 to play in the half.
Cadeau also added one in that time, one which saw UConn forward Jayden Ross and Cadeau go flying to the ground after Ross was called for a shooting foul. Things got scrappy on the floor, with the pair each getting called for a technical after some minor shoving.
That was not the Huskies’ last technical foul of the evening, as their bench was called for another with 4:54 to go in the first, which left Hurley on the bench staring toward the sky in seeming disbelief.
“I have no credibility because of my past behavior, so no one’s going to back me on this, but that technical was on [assistant coach] Mike Nardi,” Hurley said. “I don’t want to be a rat. … That wasn’t my technical. That was Nardi. Nardi threw his papers. He had the scout, so he threw his scouting papers. I just sat back in the chair and just looked up into the sky.”
Michigan failed to take advantage of the paper throwing, as freshman forward and Massachusetts native Quinn Costello missed both technical free throws before forward J.P. Estrella missed the first of his two, stemming from the Colben Landrew foul that started the ruckus.
The blare of the crowd grew stronger with each miss and seemed ready to explode through the roof had Estrella missed his second, which he instead finally sunk to somewhat salvage the trip to the charity stripe for Michigan and make it 32-28.
UConn picked up its tenth foul of the first half with 8:20 to play. Demary Jr. was the only member of the starting lineup to enter the second half with less than two fouls.
Outside of the 1-for-4 debacle, Michigan otherwise went 8-for-10 on foul shots across the rest of the first.
“It was a stunning result at halftime to be up 13, considering the amount of people that were on the bench with foul trouble,” Hurley said.
That likely would’ve kept the contest close going into the half had the Huskies not gone on a nine-point run, led by seven points in less than two minutes from Landrew. After hitting a quartet of free throws, the freshman nailed a three-pointer to send the crowd into a frenzy and give the Huskies that 13-point lead at the half.
“When we get to the arena the day of the game … he can’t wait for the game to start,” Hurley said. “He thinks he’s the best player on the court, and I think at a lot of points this year, he’s going to be.”
Landrew’s 14 points buoyed a bench scoring advantage of 18-8 in the Huskies’ favor. The forward also led the team with eight rebounds.
The Huskies came out of the locker room hot in the second half, with Ross landing a pair of three-pointers and Mullins contributing a three-point play of his own along with a jumper. The second Ross three gave the Huskies their largest lead of the evening, 52-34 with 16:22 to play.
After going 0-7 from the field in the first half and entering the second without a point, McKenney dropped 22 in the second on 8-of-11 shooting from the field to help the Wolverines narrow that lead late.
That performance may have made more of a difference had the Huskies not essentially cancelled it out with foul shots. The Wolverines sent the Huskies to the line for 28 foul shots in second, which UConn made 23 of. Mullins went 10-of-11 on second-half foul shots.
The two teams combined for 48 fouls in the contest.
“Obviously, games early in the year and early nonconference, they do get reffed a little bit tighter and you do get a lot of fouls called in these early games,” Hurley said. “But we clearly had some undisciplined fouling there.”
Scoring 21 points, Demary Jr. finished the contest with 17 field goal attempts, 14 more than he took in UConn’s 86-46 victory over Gardner-Webb Monday.
“I feel like coach has told me, ‘be an All-American point guard,’” Demary Jr. said. “So that’s just being able to go out there and run the offense. If it’s time to score, or if it’s time to get guys involved, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Demary Jr. also led the team with four assists and added seven rebounds, being named the Hall of Fame Boston Series MVP for the second straight season.
Mullins finished the contest with a team-high 23 points, two shy of matching his career high and marking the first time the sophomore has scored 20 points in back-to-back games.
Next up, the Huskies will return home Monday to make their season debut at the newly named M&T Bank Center at Gampel Pavilion, hosting Wagner. Tipoff in Storrs is scheduled for 7 p.m. Fans can tune in live on truTV.