RALEIGH, N.C. – The eight-seed UConn men's basketball team (24-10) tied a modern era record with its 13^th-straight NCAA Tournament victory, topping nine-seed Oklahoma (20-14) by a score of 67-59 on Friday night at the Lenovo Center in the First Round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The Huskies nearly led wire-to-wire and turned in one of their best defensive performances of the season to secure the triumph.

The 13-straight wins match the mark set by Duke from 1991-93 for the longest streak since the Tournament began seeding in 1979. Senior Samson Johnson became the winningest four-year Husky in program history with the win, the 115^th since he joined the program ahead of the 2021-22 season. The previous record of 114 was held by the Ricky Moore, Rashamel Jones, Antric Klaiber set from 1995-99. Johnson finished win No. 115 with eight points, six rebounds, two assists and a block in 19 minutes.

UConn held Oklahoma to 32.1 shooting on the day, the second-lowest mark from a high-major opponent this season. Solo Ball led three Huskies in double-figures with 14 points, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and adding five rebounds, a steal and a block. Alex Karaban added 13 including a clutch late 3-pointer and had seven rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Tarris Reed Jr. added 12 points and seven rebounds off the bench, while Hassan Diarra stuffed the stat sheet with four points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.

UConn led by six at the break and maintained its lead for much of the second half, going down briefly but re-taking the lead with 8:46 to play and never relenting. Jeremiah Fears led OU with 20 points and Jalon Moore added 13.

How it Happened

UConn opened the aggressor, coming up with a swat and a steal on its first two defensive trips and scoring the game's first four points. The Huskies reeled off a 7-0 run after OU broke the seal with two free throws, going up 11-2 at 16:07 via a Liam McNeeley 3-pointer. UConn had the lid on early, holding the Sooners without a field goal over the first four minutes of the contest.

Five-straight from Fears got OU within three midway through the first, before 3-pointers from Aidan Mahaney and Ball gave the Huskies a 21-16 lead ahead of a stoppage at 9:53. Both teams went cold from the field over the next few minutes until Reed Jr. hit inside off a Diarra feed to put UConn up 25-18 at 5:48 of the opening stanza.

Another bucket from Reed Jr., his fourth of the first half, made it 27-20 Huskies and prompted a Sooner timeout with 4:20 on the clock. A minute later Ball hit his second triple to stretch the lead to double-digits for the first time. The Huskies held the Sooners without a field goal for nearly five minutes to close the half and took a 32-26 lead to the break.

Fears scored the first four of the second half to pull OU within two before a Jaylin Stewart 3-pointer broke the second half seal for Connecticut. With both defenses dug in, Diarra found Stewart and Johnson on a pair of pretty feeds for finishes at the rim with the latter putting UConn up 41-32 at 13:15 of the second.

The Sooners pulled within two again midway through the second before second chance buckets from Reed Jr. and Karaban swelled the edge back to 46-40 with 11:07 to play. Five-straight from OU to follow pulled it within one and prompted a UConn timeout at 9:54.  The Sooners extended their run to 7-0 after the stoppage, taking their first lead of the day at 9:03 of the second.

A long jumper from Ball gave UConn the lead right back, kicking off a 6-0 mini-run that put the Huskies up 52-47 with seven to play. The Sooners would pull back even at 54-all as the sides dug in down the stretch. Up one with under four to play, Karaban drilled his first 3-pointer of the day from NBA range to force an OU timeout with the score 60-56 and 3:32 to play.

A put-back from Reed Jr. and Karaban floater pushed the lead back to six as the clock ticked under two minutes to play. With the lead five inside of the final minute Karaban came up with a rejection at the rim before McNeeley sunk a pair at the line with 29.2 to play. That would prove to be the difference as the Huskies salted away their 13^th-straight NCAA Tournament win.

Inside The Numbers

• The Huskies shot 42.9 percent (24-56) from the floor and 24.0 percent (6-25) from 3-point range, holding Oklahoma to 32.1 (17-53) and 17.6 (3-17) marks
  • UConn held OU to 29.7 percent shooting (7-24) in the first half – it was the fifth time this season the Huskies have held an opponent below 30 percent shooting in the opening stanza and second time vs. a high-major foe
  • The Huskies shot 48.0 percent in the second half and were 10-of-15 from two-point range in the final 20 minutes
• UConn finished with a 41-34 edge on the glass, led by seven rebounds apiece from Karaban, Reed Jr. and Diarra
  • Connecticut has out-rebounded 11 of its last 12 opponents
  • UConn turned 13 offensive rebounds into 17 second chance points
  • The Huskies entered the game top-20 nationally with a +6.3 rebound margin
• The Huskies held a 20-7 edge in bench scoring and a 32-28 advantage in the paint
• Connecticut finished with a 5-2 lead in blocks – it entered the day tops in the nation with 6.4 blocks per game

News and Notes

• UConn improves to 2-3 all-time against Oklahoma, 72-32 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 21-5 in the First Round (since seeding began in 1979)
• Dan Hurley is 15-4 as a head coach in the NCAA Tournament and 13-2 at UConn
• Ball finished in double-figures for the team-high 32^nd time in 34 games
• Johnson finished 3-of-3 from the floor, raising his program-record career field goal percentage to 73.2 percent (218-298)
  • He is shooting 77.6 percent from the field (104-135) this season, a mark that would top his own program record of 72.5 set last season
• With 13 points tonight, Karaban now has 1,339 in his career and moved past Doron Sheffer (1,326) and Joey Welton (1,337) into 28^th place in program history

Up Next

The Huskies will take on one-seed Florida in Raleigh on Sunday at 12:10 p.m. with a trip to the Regional Semifinals on the line.