Huskies’ Road Triumph: Karaban’s Key Contribution Secures Victory at Georgetown

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Alex Karaban led all scorers with 19 points to elevate the No. 9 UConn men’s basketball team (13-4, 5-1 BIG EAST) to a 68-60 victory at Georgetown (12-4, 3-2 BIG EAST) on Saturday afternoon at Capital One Arena. The Huskies utilized a dynamic start to the second half to extend their lead to as many as 23 in their ninth consecutive victory against the Hoyas.

Karaban concluded with 19 points, six rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and a steal while participating in all 40 minutes for the Huskies after bouncing back from a challenging defeat on Wednesday night. Solo Ball contributed 15 for the Huskies and sank a trio of 3-pointers while playing less than an hour from his hometown of Leesburg, Va., and fellow DMV-native Jayden Ross also had a memorable homecoming scoring seven points, securing two rebounds, assisting once, and blocking one shot from the bench.

The Huskies held only a four-point advantage at halftime but exploded with a 17-2 run right out of the locker room, forcing the Hoyas to call two timeouts within the first 5:30 of the half and never looked back. Samson Johnson had an impressive performance for Connecticut with nine points, a season-high five rebounds, and a team-leading +12 in 27 minutes, while Hassan Diarra and Aidan Mahaney tallied six points each and combined for five assists. Curtis Williams Jr. was Georgetown’s leading scorer with 15 points, while Thomas Sorber contributed nine points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Hoyas.

How it Unfolded

A sluggish shooting beginning for the Huskies allowed the Hoyas to gain an early lead, before Ball’s second 3-pointer of the first half reduced the deficit to 13-10 prior to a timeout at 11:22. That three-pointer was part of a 10-0 UConn spurt to flip the early deficit as Georgetown requested a timeout with the Huskies leading 17-13 at 9:08 after a Karaban rebound and score.

Another Karaban basket at 6:19 gave UConn its largest lead of the early stages at 25-17. The Hoyas fought back to within two before consecutive three-pointers from Ball and Karaban enlarged the cushion to 33-25 with less than three minutes left in the first half. The Huskies carried a 35-31 lead into halftime after a late GU three-pointer.

The Huskies scored the first six points of the second half, with a steal-and-score from Diarra extending the advantage to double-digits for the first time at 41-31. This was part of an 11-1 beginning to the second half for Connecticut, and a long-range 3-pointer from Karaban pushed the score to 46-32, prompting a Georgetown timeout at 16:49.

The blazing start to the second half persisted, with three straight dunks – a Johnson give-and-go, a Ross alley-oop, and a Johnson transition dunk – magnifying the score to 52-33 Connecticut before another timeout at 14:30. Midway through the second half, consecutive Karaban 3-pointers inflated the margin to over 20 for the first time at 61-39 with 9:21 remaining.

An 8-0 surge from the Hoyas, coupled with a three-minute scoring drought for the Huskies, brought GU back into contention at 64-49 before they used their final timeout with 5:20 left in regulation. Karaban capped the run with a driving layup, and the Hoyas did not threaten significantly thereafter, even though a late 9-0 run narrowed the deficit to single digits in the closing moments.

Inside the Statistics

• UConn shot 46.4 percent (26-56) overall and was 9-of-26 (34.6 percent) from beyond the arc, limiting the Hoyas to a 38.9 percent (19-49) shooting performance
  • The Huskies restricted the Hoyas to 8-of-24 (33.3 percent) shooting and caused nine turnovers in the second half

• The Huskies assisted on 14 of 26 baskets, led by four each from Diarra and Karaban
• Both sides committed 15 turnovers, yet the Huskies maintained a 22-17 advantage in points from those errors
• UConn concluded with a 30-22 lead in points in the paint
• Karaban’s game-high 19 points were achieved on 7-of-10 from the field and 4-of-6 from 3-point territory
• Connecticut recorded a 9-6 advantage in blocked shots
  • UConn entered the matchup ranked second nationally with 6.6 blocks per game
  • Tarris Reed Jr. led the Huskies with three blocks, while Johnson and Karaban each recorded two

News and Updates

• UConn improved to 39-36 all-time against Georgetown, having won nine consecutively in the series since rejoining the BIG EAST ahead of the 2020-21 season
• In his past three games against Georgetown, Karaban is averaging 23.3 points and shooting 66.7 percent (14-of-21) from long range
• The Huskies have improved to 4-1 in authentic road games this season
• Entering the day, this win was classified as a Quad 1 victory, UConn’s fourth this season – only four teams had more as of then
• UConn has limited two BIG EAST opponents to under 40 percent shooting from the field in road games this season
• The 15 turnovers forced were the highest by UConn since forcing 18 on Nov. 19 against ETAMU

What’s Next

The Huskies will take their first bye week of BIG EAST competition and will not return until Saturday, Jan. 18, when they host Creighton at Gampel Pavilion.