If there’s one play from UConn‘s win over Alabama on Saturday night that typified the Huskies’ run toward back-to-back national championships, it wasn’t a Donovan Clingan blocked shot or an Alex Karaban transition 3-pointer.
It was Tristen Newton, calmly standing off to the side chewing his gum, then slowly working his way back to the ball to receive a pass and bury a 3-pointer to give UConn a nine-point lead midway through the second half.
Aside from having the nation’s best offense and a top-five defense, one thing that has separated the Huskies is their unflappability. They have supreme confidence in what they’re doing. Eventually their shots will start falling. Eventually the opponent’s shooting will regress to the mean. Eventually the better team will win — and this season, the better team, far more often than not, has been UConn.
And that was the case again on Saturday night, as the overall 1-seed Huskies advanced to their second straight national championship game with an 86-72 winover 4-seed Alabama.
UConn will face fellow 1-seed Purdue, which beat NC State in the first Final Four matchup, in Monday’s national title game.
While UConn’s 30-0 run last week against Illinois was a lightning-in-a-bottle scenario, it did highlight a major theme for UConn this season: The Huskies just don’t stop attacking. And most teams run out of steam before UConn.
The first 10 minutes of Saturday’s second half were the epitome of a blow-for-blow sequence. The first team that failed to counter was likely going to lose.
The Huskies started the period with four straight points to open up their biggest lead of the game, an eight-point edge. Alabama immediately responded with a 7-0 run, then UConn countered with a 7-0 run of its own — and Alabama came right back with a 7-0 run and ultimately tied the game at 56 with 12:41 remaining.
