The No. 2 UConn Huskies have advanced to the Final Four, thanks in large part to Braylon Mullins, who was unaware that his 35-foot three-pointer with 0.4 seconds left was a game-winning shot. The Huskies defeated the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils 73-72 in the Elite Eight matchup on Sunday.
After the game, Mullins joined SportsCenter and admitted that he was unaware that his shot completed a 19-point comeback and sent UConn to the Final Four. Interestingly, this was the only shot that put UConn back into the lead since the opening minutes of the game on Sunday.
Mullins, who was 0 for 4 from the 3-point line before his game-winning shot against Duke, told SportsCenter:
“I mean, okay, so I know after I think Silas hit the free throw, it was just like, yeah, we have to foul the worst free throw shooter on the floor. And that was kind of the whole goal, but then they made a little mistake and Silas made a play on the ball, tipped it, and I ended up grabbing it.
And it’s just, my instinct was just to throw it ahead. And I know AK was ahead of me and he had just hit one, so I thought he was about to shoot it. And he ended up throwing the ball back to me and I knew there was like four seconds on the clock. So I mean, I just had to put one up there and it’s crazy. That was the one I made tonight.”
Everything happened so fast that Mullins thought he was hitting for a tie.
“I’m gonna be honest, I thought it was for the tie,” Mullins added. “So it was just in my head, I knew there was four seconds and I knew that was probably the best shot we could have gotten. It’s better to get a shot up rather than not getting a shot up at all. So it’s just, that was the shot to shoot.”
Braylon Mullins Reveals HC Dan Hurley Reason Behind UConn’s Terrific Comeback
The Duke Blue Devils were riding fast and they were up 44-29 by halftime. It required an encouraging halftime speech by head coach Dan Hurley as Braylon Mullins spoke about their terrific comeback:
“I mean, yeah, I think coach’s halftime speech was just to stay positive,” Mullins said. “We just had to chip at the lead and every media timeout, just try to cut it down three points, five points. And I think by like the 10-minute mark, we got into single digits. I know we knew that the game was manageable from there.
“So it’s just, I mean, we all have trust in each other. We all have confidence in each other. So I think we work too hard for it. And then it’s crazy how that all ended up happening.”
Mullins, who started the game for the Huskies, finished the game with 10 points, shooting 4-10 from the field. Now, his UConn team faces Illinois in Final Four.
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