The UConn Huskies, defending national champions and the NCAA tournament's No. 1 overall seed, withstood a test on Saturday night, outlasting the Alabama Crimson Tide to secure a second consecutive berth in the national title game on Monday night.
, 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.
UConn will face fellow 1-seed Purdue, which beat NC State in the first Final Four matchup, in Monday's national title game. According to ESPNBET, UConn opened as a 6.5-point favorite vs. the Boilermakers. 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.
But when he went to the bench, Alabama was able to take advantage, scoring a quick 10 points on its first four possessions with Clingan out of the game. After UConn trailed for just 28 seconds in its first four games of this year's NCAA tournament, Alabama led the Huskies for almost five minutes in the first half of Saturday's game. They also faced their largest deficit of the tournament when the Tide opened up a 23-18 lead with 11:09 remaining in the first half.
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