UConn men's basketball bounces back with 73-63 win at Villanova

Joe Arruda, Hartford Courant on Feb 21, 2026

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PHILADELPHIA — UConn coach Dan Hurley demanded a championship response, and he got it Saturday.

The fifth-ranked UConn men’s basketball team bounced back from Wednesday’s upset loss to Creighton with a well-rounded, dominant 73-63 Big East Conference win over third-place Villanova at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

Nine Huskies found the bottom of the net, all scoring at least four points as the team shot 54.9% from the field and pulled away in the second half.

Alex Karaban had a team-high 12 points, Tarris Reed Jr. poured in 11 and Braylon Mullins added 10. Silas Demary Jr. and Solo Ball had nine apiece as the bench contributed 22 points. All nine players had at least two rebounds as the Huskies dominated the glass, 37-24.

With the Big East regular-season title still up for grabs and Wednesday’s mega-matchup with St. John’s looming, the win added some separation between second and third place as UConn improved to 15-2 in league play and 25-3 overall. Villanova, still in third as its six-game winning streak came to an end, dropped to 21-6 and 12-4.

It was UConn’s third straight win over the Wildcats when they’ve met in the off-campus arena, which is the home of the Philadelphia 76ers. The Huskies lost last season in Finneran Pavilion on Villanova’s campus.

Neither team played much defense to start as Tyler Perkins, who scored 16 in Hartford last month, beat Ball off the dribble to score Villanova’s first eight points. UConn’s offense kept it close by making 12 of its first 17 shots, started by a pair of buckets from Reed inside and a 3-pointer from Demary.

Villanova was just as efficient, scoring nine times on its first 16 shot attempts to keep pace.

Neither team could pull away by more than three before UConn’s bench unit started an 8-2 scoring run, capped by a Stewart steal that led to a transition dunk from Ball. The Huskies went up five, their largest lead of the first half, and forced a timeout from Kevin Willard.

The Wildcats came out and changed the game, forcing five turnovers over the next four minutes. But their offense went into a funk and they couldn’t take full advantage, only building a 3-point lead during that stretch and missing 12 of their last 14 shots to close the half.

After his career-high 25-point effort against Creighton, Mullins came off a screen to land UConn’s second 3-pointer of the night. His shot began a 7-2 run that gave the Huskies a slim 34-32 lead at halftime.

The star freshman kept rolling out of the break, earning a friendly bounce on a 3-pointer from the corner to set the tone for the second half.

While Villanova’s offense continued to struggle, missing its first five shots from the field and turning the ball over five times, UConn methodically built a 13-point lead with 15 minutes on the clock. The bench kept it going as the Huskies continually earned second-chance opportunities on the glass.

Malachi Smith and Eric Reibe found success as a tandem and Stewart landed two 3-pointers, the second giving UConn a 17-point advantage with eight minutes to play.

The student section started to clear around the five-minute mark after Reed pushed it to a 21-point UConn advantage.