This post was updated March 22 at 9:46 p.m.

PHILADELPHIA – Injury reports were scoured.

“Questionable” and “game-time decision” seemed to be the words of the day. 

While everyone wondered if either team’s star players would take the hardwood, the Huskies and Bruins waited to see who would take the game by the reins.

And it was Alex Karaban who answered the call.

Fueled by 27 points on 9-for-16 shooting from the field from its most experienced player and the chants of U-C-O-N-N from the Husky faithful, No. 2 seed UConn (31-5, 17-3 Big East) knocked No. 7 seed UCLA men’s basketball (24-12, 13-7 Big Ten) out of the NCAA Tournament, winning 73-57 in the Round of 32 of March Madness Sunday night at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.

“I knew it was a tough matchup for us, because he runs around like a two guard, and our guy wasn’t used to guarding somebody that does that,” said coach Mick Cronin. “We play in the Big Ten, and mostly you got guys either spotting up or they are power players, so he was a tough matchup for us. If I had to do it over again, I would have probably put a guard on him and try to have our guy that started off on him guard somebody else on the wing.”

Senior forward Tyler Bilodeau – the Bruins’ leading scorer and most efficient 3-point shooter – was ruled out moments before tipoff, missing his third game in a row, and guard Silas Demary Jr. – the Huskies’ leader in assists and steals – was a game-time decision until he took the floor for warmups. 

Bilodeau’s absence was a decisive blow to the Bruins’ offense, and Demary seemed to be at less than 100% – something coach Dan Hurley said would happen if the Georgia transfer played in the Round of 32.

However, Cronin did not chalk up the Bruins’ defeat to the loss of Bilodeau.

“My message to our team is no excuses,” Cronin said. “It’s five on five. Sadly, I got a lot of practice in dealing with that in NCAA tournament play, but it sucks for him. Dan (Hurley) said, ‘If you had had your guy, you never know.’ I thought that the bottom line was, it was five on five, and they played harder than us. Their defense was better than our offense, and I take responsibility for that, got to have your guys ready for the opponent.”

Regardless of the hobbled rosters, a battle of two Blue Bloods seemed destined to give the supporters in Philadelphia a game worthy of the fanfare and fireworks that March basketball promises.

Neither team led by more than double digits for the majority of the affair, and the Huskies and Bruins seemed to pay homage to the Rocky Balboa statue sitting outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, trading blows throughout the bout.

The physicality of the affair seemed to favor the Bruins early, with four of UConn’s starters combining for 11 fouls. 

But the constant off-ball movement from the Husky shooters nullified the UCLA foul advantage and allowed UConn to gain heat heading into the dying embers of the second round of the tournament.

The Bruin defenders seemed to do their best getting through multiple screens and offensive sets to free up their offensive weapons. The presence of center Tarris Reed Jr. forced UCLA to make a choice: double down on Reed in the paint – who was coming off a 31-point and 27-rebound performance against No. 15 Furman on Friday – or let the big man go to work on a Bilodeau-less frontcourt.

The Bruins picked their poison – limiting Reed to just 10 points on 3-for-8 shooting from the field.

But they felt it on the perimeter, forfeiting four 3-pointers to Karaban.

“These past two or three weeks we put in a lot of work as a team,” said junior forward/center Xavier Booker. “We’ve come a long way in those two to three weeks just building on and off the court and growing closer on and off the court too, especially defensively. I feel like our defense has been pretty good these past two or three weeks, but today it just wasn’t enough.”

Arguably, though, it was on the other end of the court where the Bruins felt Bilodeau’s absence most.

The UCLA offense struggled against the stifling UConn defense, with sophomore guard Trent Perry and senior guard Donovan Dent combining for just 16 points and 4-for-17 shooting from the field.

The Bruins took only 13 3-pointers – their second fewest attempts of the season – despite converting five of them and coming into the second round matchup ranked 20th in the nation and second in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting percentage.

And as UCLA’s offensive woes continued, the final nail in the coffin seemed to be a technical foul against coach Mick Cronin that increased the Huskies’ lead to 11.

Perry, in particular, felt the loss, starting in Sunday night’s affair after playing just 11.4 minutes per game last season as a true freshman.

“When you’re a young player, it’s good to be upset because you care,” Cronin said. “Right now is not the time to coach, right now it’s the time to try and be a father figure to those guys.” 

When the final buzzer sounded, UCLA’s fate seemed eerily similar to its loss last season, falling to the No. 2 seed Tennessee in the Round of 32 in a location where the blue and gold were outnumbered by the other team’s faithful.

“I just want to comfort my teammates, honestly,” said junior guard/forward Eric Dailey Jr. “It’s hard for our seniors, those guys are crying in the locker room right now. That’s not a good feeling, so I just want to be there emotionally for my teammates right now. That’s all I can do.”