Reed in rare air with 31-27 night as UConn escapes

Reed in rare air with 31-27 night as UConn escapes

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Reed had 31 points on 12-of-15 shooting and 27 rebounds to carry the second-seeded Huskies to an 82-71 victory over Furman. He joined Bill Walton as the only players in the past 60 years to have 30 points and 20 rebounds on 80% shooting in an NCAA tournament game, according to ESPN Research. Walton had 33 points and 21 rebounds on 11-of-13 shooting for UCLA in the 1972 national semifinals against Louisville.

"I feel like I let my foot off the gas a little bit in the second half," he said.

UConn (30-5) needed every ounce of production it got from Reed, along with 22 points from Alex Karaban, to advance to play UCLA in the second round of the East Region on Sunday.

"That was the game, this guy," UConn coach Dan Hurley said, motioning toward Reed. "That's as dominant a performance as you've probably seen from a big guy in tournament history. That's what he's capable of. This guy's a total monster, and today he was a real grizzly bear."

For about 36 minutes, it looked like Hurley and the Huskies had a chance of heading home. But Reed wouldn't let them, the All-Big East center becoming the first player with 30-plus points and 25-plus rebounds in an NCAA tournament game since Houston's Elvin Hayes did it twice in 1968, when the field had only 23 teams.

Reed, who had 11 offensive rebounds, knew early that Furman would have difficulty stopping him.

"I feel like just watching film, from the jump," Reed said. "Knowing what the scout was, trusting in my teammates, trusting in the coaching staff, knowing that I was really going to be able to dominate down low and take advantage of the bigs they had and just take advantage of the paint."

The Huskies were 20½-point favorites to thump a school most basketball fans couldn't find on a map. The real line that mattered was the final stat line: The Huskies missed 20 of 25 3-pointers with each clang off the rim seemingly sounding the dinner bell for the 15th-seeded Paladins to come on in and pull off the seismic shocker.

When Alex Wilkins hit a 3 to cut UConn's lead to 69-64 and the Paladins (22-13) stayed within five with 5:49 left, it seemed Furman was ready to kick up some dust on a tournament Friday filled with mostly chalk results.

"I thought if we could have gotten a score there, we really could have made the game interesting," Furman coach Bob Richey said.

But led by Reed, the Huskies had enough in a 12-4 run down the stretch to survive the first round.

UConn's Tarris Reed Jr. joined Bill Walton as the only players in the past 60 years to have 30 points and 20 rebounds on 80% shooting from the field in an NCAA tournament game. Kyle Ross/Imagn ImagesUConn played without first team All-Big East selection Silas Demary Jr. after he suffered an ankle injury in the Big East tournament, and Jaylin Stewart again sat out with a knee injury that has sidelined him since late February. Hurley said he hopes one if not both will play Sunday.

They were missed against a Furman team that beat top-seeded East Tennessee State to secure the Southern Conference tournament and a NCAA tournament bid.

The Huskies displayed cracks throughout the season, including a loss to St. John's in the Big East tournament title game, that have threatened to prevent another long March Madness run for a program that expects it. The injuries didn't help. Neither did a determined Furman team under Richey.

The basketball fans inside the home of the Philadelphia 76ers absolutely erupted when Furman grabbed a 19-18 lead midway through the first half.

Furman, a Greenville, South Carolina, university named after a Baptist pastor, needed more than a prayer to upset UConn. It needed 3s.

The Paladins sank them, including six in the first half, none more emotionally charged than Charles Johnston's first-half buzzer-beater that sliced UConn's lead to 40-36.

Johnston threw his arms up in celebration and ran to half court for a violent chest-bump with a teammate as the Paladins scurried off the court into the locker room.

"I kind of just caught the ball, I could see the shot clock a little bit, and in the background, I saw single digits and thought, why not?" Johnston said. "I think that's my first transition 3 I shot this season. It was fine to throw the wings up one last time. So that was fun."

Furman shot 48% in the first half and had some big help in making this one a game from UConn's dreadful 1-of-14 shooting from 3-point range.

Johnston threw down a monster dunk early in the second half that kept Furman within striking distance at 54-47. After he took one to the house, Tom House, who scored 21 points, buried a 3 that cut the lead to 56-50.

Furman knew how to pull off a March surprise. The Paladins have made just two NCAA tournaments since 1980 but used a buzzer-beater to top No. 4 Virginia in 2023.

They just couldn't finish off another March win against one of basketball's big dogs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.