UConn casts a winning spell, breaks losing streak at Seton Hall

Dan Hurley and UConn exorcise demons Tuesday as Huskies won at Seton Hall for first time since 2021. (Photo by Frank Franklin II/Associated Press)

NEWARK, N.J. — Desperate times call for desperate measures.

So much had been made of UConn’s inability to win at Seton Hall that one overzealous fan went so far as to seek spiritual help.

My friend Greg (great guy) has hired an Etsy Witch to remove the curse at The Prudential Center.

*please do not tell the team about this ritual, per the Witch’s instructions.

UConn by 100 tonight. pic.twitter.com/f3MKItrQJL

— Mediocre Dan (UConn Fan) (@ItsMediocreDan) January 13, 2026

A UConn fan named Greg apparently placed an order via Etsy for the services of a witch to lift the supposed curse that plagued the Huskies in their four consecutive Prudential Center losses. Normally, such a request would be seen as outlandish and offbeat, but a closer inspection of the UConn fan base reveals abnormalities and such rabid tribalism among its ranks that it becomes charming, and thus, weirdly apropos.

And after Tuesday, the divine intervention of sorts proved successful, as third-ranked UConn left New Jersey victorious for the first time since 2021, holding on for a 69-64 win over No. 25 Seton Hall, but withstanding a furious rally by the host Pirates as they trimmed an 18-point Husky lead to one in the final minute of regulation.

“UConn fans are a different animal,” Dan Hurley quipped when he was informed of the pregame transpirings. “It’s not surprising, but what am I gonna say about it? I spray holy water all over the court, I sage my court, I throw garlic under the bleachers. I’m a fucking cartoon character, so I don’t know how I could pass judgment on some other bizarre shit.”

What was not bizarre, however, was UConn’s intensity against a Seton Hall team Hurley had praised as the hardest-playing outfit in the country. The Huskies (17-1, 7-0 Big East) joined the Pirates in a rock fight through the first stages of the opening half, then took advantage of center Stephon Payne and point guard Budd Clark each picking up two fouls. With Payne and Clark off the floor, UConn held Seton Hall without a field goal for the final 7:05 of the opening stanza, seizing control of the game with a 16-2 run into the locker room and taking a 35-22 advantage into halftime as Tarris Reed, Jr. and Alex Karaban buoyed the offense after a shaky beginning.

“The game was exactly what we thought it would be,” Hurley said. “I thought for 25 minutes, we played as hard as them, which is why we were able to get it to a comfortable 18. But we couldn’t sustain it and they were able to climb back in it. You knew they would.”

The two-time national champion coach would soon be proven prophetic by his alma mater.

Seton Hall (14-3, 4-2 Big East) slowly began to chip away at its deficit after it reached a peak with 14:48 remaining in regulation, when UConn held a 46-28 initiative after Pirate head coach Shaheen Holloway was called for a technical foul and Karaban drained both of the two free throws that ensued.

“Every coach gets a little fired up,” Holloway reflected. “I’m very passionate about this game of basketball and all the officials know it. All of them.”

His own players were reminded on the fly, as Seton Hall used its swarming full-court press to get the Huskies off kilter. The Pirates used a 13-3 run to draw within single digits halfway through the second half, and after two Silas Demary, Jr. free throws pushed the UConn lead back to 10 points, the relentless hosts struck again with a 10-2 run to pull within one possession as 2:18 remained on the clock.

The Hall connected on just one three-point field goal Tuesday, but it came at the most opportune of times. With 47.3 seconds still to sort out, Mike Williams splashed the net from the left corner to bring the Pirates closer to the precipice, making the score 65-64 and prompting Hurley to call a timeout in response. But where the reaction in the visiting huddle may have been déjà vu to an outsider, the actual state of affairs was hardly the case.

“It was never, ‘here we go again,’ Karaban recalled. “It was just staying together. It was similar to BYU in a way, where they came back, and we just stayed together no matter what, battling through the adversity, making sure that we stayed together within our bubble. And that’s what we did. We found a way to win.”

And for a third consecutive game, it was one of UConn’s youngest principals who made that possible.

Braylon Mullins’ offensive explosion in overtime last Wednesday guided the Huskies past an upset-minded Providence squad. His scoring and rebounding led UConn past DePaul on Saturday. On this night, it was the Indiana native’s defense that ignited the winning spark. With Seton Hall down three after Demary made two free throws, Williams attempted another trifecta from the same vicinity as his make seconds before. Mullins was able to block the shot and alter its path into the hands of Demary, who made two more foul shots to provide the final points of the evening.

“We were told (to) run them off the line,” Mullins shared as he recounted the game-saving possession. “It got a little nervous because I found that 3-point shooter in the first half and I thought the same situation was gonna happen. But I got the piece of it, and then Silas got the defensive rebound to put the game away. It’s just the emphasis throughout the past month. You gotta be on both ends of the ball, not be just a scorer, not just be the off-ball kind of guy, and just put yourself in that position to make defensive plays.”

“Ever since he stepped on campus, he’s been an underrated defender,” Karaban said of Mullins. “Just how he’s able to move defensively, he’s a sneaky athlete too, so it wasn’t really a surprise for us. He doesn’t play like a freshman. He made a big-time play for us, a winning play.”

A win at Seton Hall had been one of the final items missing for Karaban on his self-imposed checklist. With that box no longer blank, he relished the joy ever so briefly, but was strictly business seconds later.

“I definitely didn’t want to lose here again,” he said. “If they define my legacy on wins at Seton Hall, then so be it. But at the end of the day, I’m just proud we got a Big East win. We gotta learn, we gotta clean this stuff up, but I’m proud of us just staying together.”

“I don’t think that we define our level of success at UConn based on what our records are in certain places,” Hurley added. “I think for us, we’re taking one game at a time, trying to compete for the regular season Big East championship. There’s not a lot of Quad 1 wins in this league this year, so being able to get it for what we’re trying to do, this was a big win for us from that standpoint.”

UConn returns to action Saturday, when the Huskies visit the nation’s capital to face a Georgetown team looking to reverse a downturn in its own luck. But until then, the ingredients to Tuesday’s winning brew, even if they were similar to every other concoction during the year, will be magical in and around the basketball capital of the world.

“We all knew that we hadn’t won here,” Mullins admitted. “We came in the building with the same mentality as every other game, that we were gonna just try to win, try to move on to play (our) best basketball.”