In the NCAA Tournament in March, in a game that pitted two-time defending champion UConn against Florida, a No. 1 seed, the Gators knocked off the No. 8-seeded Huskies by two points in the second round.

Coach Dan Hurley and his team didn’t forget.

In the teams’ first meeting since the tournament – won by Florida – the Huskies survived a frantic final 13 seconds to defeat the Gators 77-73 in the nightcap of the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York.

“It’s an amazing feeling, obviously,” said Huskies forward Alex Karaban, who scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including a key jumper to put UConn up by six points with 2:09 left.

“The theme was revenge. We wanted revenge and we knew Florida wouldn't go away as the last three national champions playing in this building especially. And the environment was awesome. Man, that was one hell of a game.”

No. 5-ranked UConn (9-1) welcomed back center Tarris Reed Jr. who missed four of the previous five games with an ankle injury. And he was needed in a physical game that resulted in a combined 39 fouls.

Solo Ball led UConn with 19 points, and Reed had 12 and a team-high five rebounds. Malachi Smith came off the bench to tally nine assists.

For the No. 18 Gators (5-4), Xaivian Lee led all scorers with 19 points, followed by 18 from Thomas Haugh and 14 from Alex Condon.

Rueben Chinyelu pulled down 11 rebounds.

The Gators jumped out to a 20-13 lead in the first half following a 12-0 run.  

The Huskies answered right back, however, with their own 12-1 streak to go up 25-21 with 5:53 remaining in the first half. 

They went into the locker room at halftime up 39-32 following four consecutive points from Jaylin Stewart.

In the second frame, the Gators whittled away at the UConn edge and were up 49-36 on a Haugh 3-pointer with 11:53 left in the game.

The teams swapped the lead four times before UConn went up for good 52-51 on a Smith jumper with 9:34 remaining.

A layup by Boogie Fland gave Florida hope, dropping the Huskies’ lead to 76-73 with 13 seconds remaining. A lost-ball turnover by UConn’s Jayden Ross gave the ball back to the Gators, who handed the ball right back when they couldn’t execute an inbounds pass play and were called for a five-second count.

Ball immediately was fouled, and he made the first of two foul shots to seal the win for the Huskies.

Florida had a 40-to-28 edge rebounding, but UConn’s bench outscored the Gators’ 20-6. Freshman center Eric Reibe had nine of those points.

“Our bench stepped up big time,” Karaban told ESPN in a postgame interview. “It's always next man up and the strength of our team is our depth. I believe we can go forward with the depth we have, and it was really a team effort to go out here and beat them.”