UConn constructed a 16-point lead late within the first half, solely to see the Aztecs (32-7) trim the result in 5 with 5:19 left. However Jordan Hawkins (16 factors) answered with a 3 to set off a 9-0 run and the one drama left was whether or not UConn would cowl the 7 1/2-point unfold and go 6-for-6 with double-digit wins.
UConn set the stage for this one over an 11:07 stretch within the first half throughout which Coach Eric Henderson’s Aztecs didn’t make a single basket. Unable to shoot over or go round this tall, lengthy UConn workforce, they missed 14 straight photographs from the ground.Keshad Johnson had 14 factors for San Diego State, which got here up one win quick on this, its first journey to the Ultimate 4.
They went from main by 4 to trailing by 11, and once they weren’t getting photographs blocked (Alex Karaban had three and Sanogo had one) or altered on the within, they had been developing quick — a telltale signal of a workforce that was out of hops after that draining 72-71 buzzer-beater win over Florida Atlantic two nights earlier.
UConn fan Invoice Murray was one of many few celebrities available to look at the Huskies make it 5 for 5 in title video games in one of the crucial sudden Ultimate Fours in historical past. This one marked the final that Jim Nantz would name after 37 years behind the mic.
He’s had a whole lot of UConn tales to inform, although this actually wasn’t essentially the most dramatic.
Even with that temporary bout of uncertainty halfway via the second half, UConn by no means really let the Aztecs, who overcame a 14-point deficit within the semifinal, begin serious about any extra last-second dramatics.
This was a workforce constructed strictly for 2023 — replenished by coach Dan Hurley, who went to the switch portal to seek out extra outdoors taking pictures after back-to-back first-round exits within the match.
And but, there was one thing decidedly old-school about the best way the Huskies took care of enterprise within the early going.
They didn’t even suppose a lot about 3-point taking pictures in the beginning, as a substitute skip passing into Sanogo on the put up and sporting down SDSU whereas constructing the early lead.
The Aztecs had been too good a workforce to cave and an over-pursuing protection is what triggered the late run to inside 5. A workforce constructed on protection solely shot 32% from the ground.
And after its late run, they began getting burned and Hurley and Co. had been hugging it out on the bench earlier than the buzzer.
UConn’s newest coronation makes Hurley the third coach to deliver a trophy residence to Storrs, Connecticut. He joins Jim Calhoun (1999, 2004, 2001) and Kevin Ollie (2014).
