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A year after winning the men’s national championship, UConn is back in the title game after beating Alabama 86-72 in the Final Four.
The top-seeded Huskies (36-3) had put on a March Madness spectacle before hitting the desert, a stretch that included a 30-0 run in an annihilation of Illinois in the Elite Eight.
This was more of a slow burn, with UConn withstanding an early wave of 3-point shooting before holding the Crimson Tide (25-12) without a field goal for a five-minute stretch of the second half.
Stephon Castle led the Huskies with 21 points, while Donovan Clingan added 18 in the victory. Alex Karaban and Cam Spencer also added 14.
For Alabama, which had reached its first Final Four in school history, Mark Sears led the way with 24 points, but the Huskies ultimately proved to have too much offensive firepower.
UConn’s Donovan Clingan celebrates in the second half. The big guy finished with 18 points.
UConn guard Stephon Castle (5) dunks on Alabama forward Grant Nelson (2)
Alabama guard Mark Sears (left) scored 24 points but it wasn’t enough for the Tide.
The Huskies’ victory in the Final Four certainly wasn’t as easy as the final score indicated.
Alabama held its own in the program’s first Final Four appearance, going toe-to-toe with a team that trailed by 28 seconds total in its first four games of the NCAA Tournament.
Crafty point guard Sears did his best to keep Alabama in it, while Grant Nelson had another big game in March Madness, finishing with 19 points, 15 rebounds and a highlight-reel dunk over Clingan.
The teams were tied at 56 with 12:44 remaining, although Alabama never led in the second half.
Next up for the Huskies will be what should be a much more physical test against 7-foot-4, 300-pound Zach Edey and Purdue in Monday’s national championship game.
Last March, the Boilermakers became the second No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed when they fell to Fairleigh Dickinson. That loss haunted the Boilermakers all year, even as they won the regular-season Big Ten race and spent the entire season looking like title favorites, and redshirt freshman Cameron Heide noted that the team heard chants of “FDU! FDU!” from opposing fans throughout the year.
Purdue handled NC State 63-50 on Friday night, led by Edey’s 20 points and 12 rebounds.
If UConn can survive its matchup against Purdue, it will be the first repeat national champion since Florida in 2006-07.