UConn basketball solidified its spot in Monday night’s National Championship game after beating the Illinois Fighting Illini in Indianapolis.
To no surprise, the 2026 Final Four got off to an exciting start. In the first game of the weekend, the UConn Huskies defeated the Fighting Illini with a score of 72-61. Despite the majority of the fans being from Illinois, UConn basketball did not let the intimidating atmosphere sway them as they punched their ticket to the national championship game.
The game started out with total UConn domination. However, Illinois brought it close, and thanks to a successful three point shot with just under eight minutes left in the half by Tomislav Ivisic, Illinois was able to take the lead 22-21. This would be the only time in the game the Illini led the Huskies, as UConn turned things back their way quickly.
Freshman star Braylon Mullins led the way in points in the first half, providing twelve for UConn. Tarris Reed Jr. was a close second to Mullins as he had 11 points in the first half. One reason Illinois was able to keep the game close as the second half went on was that they did not let Mullins or Reed Jr. score until a Reed Jr. layup with 4:38 left on the clock.
Illinois continued to put up a fight, being down by four points with 1:38 left to play. A lot of this fight was on the defensive end, but that’s not to say they did not battle on the other side of the ball as well. Freshman Keaton Wagler led the way in scoring with 20 points, along with 8 rebounds and 2 assists. The second leading scorer for Illinois was Ivisic, who provided 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 1 assist. However, these efforts were not enough for their team to come out on top.
Even though they held Mullins scoreless for most of the half, with under one minute on the clock, the Indiana native made a three-point shot that would seal the deal on the UConn win. After a somewhat similar situation to their win over Duke in the Elite Eight, this is beginning to feel like a normal occurrence for the freshman star. In a press conference after the game, Mullins explained that even in a slump, confidence is always key to taking these shots.
“You’ve always got to shoot with confidence. The set was going to be run for anybody on the team; you’ve just got to shoot with confidence,” Mullins said.
With Mullins and Reed Jr. having slower second halves, defense played a large role for the Huskies in this game. UConn held Illinois to shooting 33% from the field and had 14 assists compared to Illinois’ 3. The Illini also had eight turnovers while the Huskies had four. That’s not to say that UConn did fall short in some areas, as they were out-rebounded 44-37. UConn head coach Dan Hurley explained the importance of defense in the tournament in a press conference after the game.
“Just the life-and-death nature of this tournament, I think, has created the urgency, and I thought kind of the best thing that we did was get into them in the full court and get into them a little bit more in the half court and move some of those two-man actions a little bit further away and put them under a little bit more stress,” Hurley said.
For Hurley, it was not so long ago that his team was playing in this championship game. UConn basketball’s last appearance was in 2024, where they beat Purdue 75-60. However, Hurley explained in a press conference after the game that there is still a tremendous amount of excitement being in this position.
“Just obviously thrilled. There’s no better feeling than us being on that bus Monday night, just being one of the last two teams standing, that bus ride to the stadium. It’s just a cool experience,” Hurley said.
The Huskies will have their chance at the 2026 national title on Monday, Apr. 6, in Lucas Oil Stadium. They will take on 1-seed Michigan.