The tight finish evoked memories of 1998, when Connecticut beat Washington by one point on a buzzer-beating shot by Richard Hamilton in the same round of the tournament.

Connecticut had nearly as many turnovers (26) as made field goals (27) and has yet to hit its stride in this tournament. UConn had to rally from 12 points down to beat 16th-seeded Albany in the first round and struggled to hold off Kentucky in the second round.

Senior Jamaal Williams came off the bench to score a career-high 27 points, including the first 3-pointer of his college career, to lead fifth-seeded Washington (26-7), which had four of its seven losses come in overtime this season. The Pac-10 Huskies failed to hold a 10-point lead with 15 minutes to play and began to run out of players down the stretch: Two fouled out in regulation, and three more in overtime.

Anderson rescued Connecticut with his 3-point shooting. He made two in the final 35 seconds and finished with 19 points, making 5 of 10 3-pointers. Josh Boone added 13 points and 11 rebounds for Connecticut, which had only a 42-38 rebounding advantage over a much smaller opponent. Gay scored 11 of his 12 in the second half.

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Roy scored 20 points for Washington. The Pac-10 player of the year missed vital time in the second half after he and Gay went chest-to-chest and received double technicals. Roy also got a personal foul on the play, giving him four fouls and forcing him to the bench for several minutes.

“Overall, there was a period where we lost our composure as a group,” Romar said. “That was a stretch where the momentum kind of shifted. It wasn’t just Brandon’s technical. We started to get a little rattled as a group.”