Braylon Mullins (Greenfield-Central) Drills Iconic 35-Footer — Sends UConn to Final Four

A 35-foot attempt with 0.4 seconds on the clock, launched by a freshman who had missed all four of his three-point tries that afternoon. That is what it took for Braylon Mullins to bury No. 1-seeded Duke 73-72 and send UConn to the Final Four on Sunday.

The Greenfield-Central product completed one of the more improbable sequences in recent March Madness memory, capping a 19-point UConn comeback with a go-ahead three that dropped as the clock expired. With Duke up two and 10 seconds remaining, Mullins forced a turnover in the backcourt, pushed the ball ahead to Alex Karaban, and received it back trailing the play. Instead of pulling up or driving, the freshman launched from 35 feet. It went in.

UConn coach Dan Hurley, watching the ball arc, said he tracked the trajectory and thought "this s might go in." Even from the sideline, certainty was in short supply.

Karaban, UConn's winningest player, put the moment in its sharpest context: "The Indiana kid sent us to Indianapolis." The line carried real weight. The Final Four destination, Indianapolis, is practically Mullins' backyard, adding a layer of symmetry that the game itself could not have scripted.

The 0-for-4 mark from deep heading into that final possession is the detail that sharpens everything else. Cold-shooting stretches of that kind typically push coaches toward other options, yet when Karaban caught the ball and found Mullins trailing the play, Mullins let it fly without hesitation. That shot also originated from a forced turnover Mullins himself created, starting the entire final sequence in roughly five seconds from scramble to net.

Indiana high school basketball followers already knew Mullins before Sunday. He was a tracked prospect at Greenfield-Central, the kind of player Hoosier fans watched develop long before ESPN needed to explain where he came from. National outlets anchored their coverage around his Indiana roots because it fit; the state has a documented pipeline of guards who play with composure under pressure, and Mullins just added the most recent and visceral entry to that argument.

Mullins described the sequence as moving fast, credited teammates for creating the scramble, and acknowledged he expected Karaban to take the shot. The fact that he caught and fired anyway after going 0-for-4 from range is precisely what UConn saw when they recruited out of Greenfield. The hesitation-free release in a moment that size does not happen by accident.

UConn advances to the Final Four in Indianapolis. Greenfield-Central's name is attached to the shot that sent them there.