Karaban immortalized, clinches No. 6 UConn's 79-75 win over Georgetown
STORRS, Conn. – Alex Karaban is… different.
He isn’t the flashy type – he’ll trade a gaudy 25 points and a loss for 11 and a win. He isn’t the most athletic player on the court, nor is he the tallest or strongest. He’s old for college basketball standards and is often alienated for being a fifth-year senior in the era of one-and-done cash-grabs.
He’s different.
But Karaban’s also the stabilizer; the guy Dan Hurley looks to when he needs a bucket at the end of the shot clock or a box out on a crucial free throw. He’s the voice in the cramped and chaotic late-game huddles, and the posterchild of composure for a program that’s played on the nation’s brightest stages.
He’s just different.
And after UConn basketball (24-2, 14-1) staved off Georgetown’s (13-12, 5-9) late comeback attempt Saturday night, the redshirt senior became different in another sense.
Surrounded by his teammates and coaches at halfcourt, Karaban was etched into the Connecticut basketball pantheon after becoming UConn’s all-time wins leader, notching his 116th victory as a Husky with a pivotal defensive rebound in the waning seconds, stymieing the Hoyas’ furious comeback attempt.
“He is who he is,” Hurley said post-game, referencing Karaban’s 18-point, 3-rebound performance. “The most accomplished player in college basketball, one of the most unsung, great players in college basketball that doesn’t get on lists and things, but all he’s done is won and come up with clutch performances.”
“To say that here at this school,” Ed Cooley added, “is really saying something. It goes to his fortitude and his loyalty. Loyalty is really, really big right now. When you can get retainment like that, you can have the rewards that he deserves. I thought his 3 was a really, really big game-changer today late in the second half.”
But the Huskies, now 14-1 in Big East play after sweeping Cooley’s Hoyas for the third straight season, shouldn’t have even been in a position for Karaban’s rebound to matter.
Connecticut tempted the fates for much of the second half, dangling a double-digit lead in front of a fiery Georgetown squad that capitalized on costly UConn mistakes, like Silas Demary Jr.’s dribble-off-the-leg and Tarris Reed Jr.’s inexplicable (fifth personal) foul on KJ Lewis that gave pulled the Hoyas within three with 24 seconds to go.
“You can’t foul them there,” Hurley rued. “You have to have the discipline to not do that. It sets off a chain of events there, where if he just makes a 3, it stays at four, but he cut it to three and now [Reed] has fouled out of the game.”
Reed, marred by fouls, surrendered most of the second half to freshman Eric Reibe, whose 10th point late in the second half made him the fifth Husky in double figures.
Connecticut was also aided by Solo Ball (20 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists), who drilled three-plus 3-pointers in back-to-back games for the first time this season to hit 1,000 career points, and Demary, who flirted with a triple-double again at the point.
“That’s just being the first person to the ball,” Demary said of his team-leading 12 rebounds. “That will to extend the lead and try to get extra possessions for us. That’s just trying to make an identity play.”
UConn stretched and pried the lead all night, never trailing and always holding its advantage tantalizingly close to the Hoyas, who weathered the Huskies’ early 3-point barrage.
Georgetown whittled the deficit down from 12 to eight and from eight to six before the under four timeout of the second half, thanks in part to Kayvaun Mulready’s career-high 15 points on four timely made 3-pointers and Vince Iwuchukwu‘s free throws.
But Karaban, as he’s done time and time again while donning the blue and white, steered the Huskies in the final four, connecting on a haymaker 3 from the left wing that stretched the lead back to seven with under three minutes to go.
And after an inbounds turnover gave Georgetown the ball back just seconds after Lewis rattled off a four-point play, Mulready went to the line to shoot one-and-one with under 12 seconds to go.
The first hit the back of the iron and dropped in, bringing the Hoyas within a single basket and an intentional miss and offensive rebound from a tie. The second, dangling in the air for what felt like 116 seconds, caromed off the right side of the rim and shot towards the Hoya bench.
Cooley, imploring his team to dive for the ball that dribbled ever-so-close to the sideline, went into surrender cobra after Karaban wrangled the ball from Mulready, all but securing the Huskies’ 24th win of the season – and the redshirt senior’s record.
Hurley, pumping his fists in the air in between fist bumps with assistant coaches Luke Murray and Kimani Young, was the first one to hug Karaban after the buzzer sounded.
“For him to say all those words,” Karaban said in reaction to Hurley’s post-game praise, “it’s a blessing. He’s the first person to believe in me and the first person to give me confidence out there as a player.”
That confidence has stretched a program-record 136 starts across four seasons, including a pair of national championships and 42 appearances in the top five of the AP Poll.
“He didn’t have to play me my freshman year. He didn’t have to start me, he didn’t have to do any of that,” Karaban said. “For him to believe in me and for him to have all that trust in me, he’s been the most influential person in my life, and I don’t know how I can repay him.”
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