Recap: UConn advances to national championship after besting Bama
GLENDALE – The UConn Huskies are on to the national championship after taking down Alabama, 86-72, in the Final Four’s nightcap. It’s the Huskies’ 11th consecutive double-digit win in the NCAA Tournament, extending their record, but they had to earn it.
Purdue won the day’s first game, taking down NC State, 63-50, to set up a championship game between the top two teams in the nation on Monday night.
Alabama hit 8-of-11 threes in the first half to stay in the game early. The Crimson Tide defense also frustrated the Huskies at times, but UConn (36-3) went to Donovan Clingan and Steph Castle often as they built a quick 13-5 lead and the two young stars led them to victory.
Castle finished with a team-high 21 points while Clingan added 18 and both Alex Karaban and Cam Spencer scored 14 each.
Bama tied the game up at 13 and kept it tight across the first half even though the Huskies led by four at the break. UConn kept its buffer most of the way before pulling away in the middle of the second half. The game was tied at 56 with 12:04 left, but UConn responded with an 8-0 run that began the avalanche.
For every Husky run, Alabama responded to prevent Dan Hurley’s squad from putting the game on ice early as it has done in every NCAA Tournament game thus far. They had a brief chance to breathe at the end of the game as they pushed the lead into double-digits in the game’s final minutes.
Monday’s national championship game tips off at 9:20 p.m. ET from State Farm Stadium. The two teams are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in KenPom, with Purdue boasting the third-best offensive efficiency and 12th-best defensive efficiency in the country.
Advanced Stats
(Rank in season’s games in parentheses)
OReb%: 36% (19th-best performance in 39 games)
DReb%: 75.8% (15th)
Free Throw Rate: 22% (29th)
TO Rate: 6.4% (1st)
Assists/Made baskets: 65% (19th)
eFG%: 58% (19th)
Box Scores
UConn
Alabama
Split Box
Game Flow & Win Probability
Post-Game Press Conference