UConn muscles through Illini, set for title shot at Final Four

INDIANAPOLIS -- UConn acted like the team that belonged and the Huskies are headed back to the national championship game after controlling Illinois start to finish in a 71-62 win Saturday at the Final Four.

Tarris Reed Jr. had 17 points and 11 rebounds and freshman Braylon Mullins had a huge first half and closing exclamation points to win a battle of touted freshmen with Fighting Illini second-team All-American Keaton Wagler.

The Huskies (34-5) defeated Illinois (28-9) for the second time this season and remained the only team to hold the Fighting Illini under 65 points in 2025-26.

Wagler finished with 20 points but was 2 of 10 from 3-point range, worn down by the Huskies challenging him for every inch and movement for the full 37 minutes he was on the court.

UConn came up with an offensive rebound on Alex Karaban's missed 3 and Mullins knocked down a 3 for his first points of the second half with 52 seconds left.

Wagler had the answer. Facing a full-speed closeout from Silas Demary Jr., Wagler splashed a 3 from the left wing and Illinois spent its final timeout with 43.5 seconds remaining to make it a 66-62 game.

Demery made both free throws and Wagler's long 3 banged hard off the front of the rim to help the Huskies leave Illinois disheartened and 1-5 all-time in the Final Four.

Earlier, Mullins missed a runner off the glass left of the lane and Reed's follow didn't fall for UConn coming out of a Huskies' late-shot clock timeout. Wagler groud his way into the lane and cut the UConn lead to 63-59 with 1:38 to play.

Wagler missed a 26-foot 3 and a long rebound outlet to Ball put UConn up 61-53. With a chance to extend the lead or run precious ticks off the clock following another Wagler missed 3, the Huskies gave the ball back to Illinois. Ball missed in transition and Ben Humrichous made a 3 in front of the Illini bench to trim the deficit to 61-56 when the media timeout arrived with 2:46 remaining.

"You've just got to stay composed. Holding the lead, finding a good shot," Mullins said. "That's what we do."

UConn is in the Final Four for the third time in four seasons and improved to 13-1 all-time on Saturday.

UConn had Illinois on the ropes quickly in the second half, building its lead to 11 with Karaban's free throws when the Illini beat a double-team trap and found Mirkovic alone for a 3 from the left wing as the clock hit 17:08 to play. Ball got all 3 right back on a transition triple at the other end and a few minutes later made it 52-40 Huskies with a 3 that bounced off the rim twice before settling in the net.

Illinois' dual-engine offense was slowed to running in fits and starts by UConn's grinding defense, but the consolation prize paid dividends. The Fighting Illini made 18 of 23 free throws in the game.

They reached the double-bonus on the Huskies 10th foul of the second half with just under nine minutes to play. Kylan Boswell made two free throws and Tomislav Ivisic hit two with 8:03 on the clock, shrinking the UConn lead to 57-49 to awaken a partisan Illinois crowd. With UConn in the midst of a three-minute scoreless stretch, Ivisic got two more at the 7-minute mark, making it 57-51 Huskies.

UConn shrugged off Illinois' token defensive pressure -- the Huskies first turnover of the game was on their 40th possession -- and went right at the tandem 7-foot Isivic Twins.

Illinois, which averaged 83.8 points per game, appeared to face challenges with the open shooting background at the south end of Lucas Oil Stadium and shot 34.5 percent in the first half with one assist on 10 field goals. Top free-throw shooter Andrej Stojakovic (82.3% entering Final Four) badly missed a pair in the first half.

The Illini missed their first six 3-point tries with UConn's full-court press causing the offensive juggernaut to shift approach and attack the paint.

Wagler finally nailed a 3 with 10:30 left in the first half and broke the ice.

Ivisic hit a line-drive lefty 3 to give Illinois its first and only lead of the game, 22-21, in the midst of a nearly four-minute scoring drought for UConn. At that under-8 timeout in the first half, which came at the 6:25 mark, the teams were a combined 15 of 44 from the field.

--Jeff Reynolds, Field Level Media