Illini-lated: UConn storms past Illinois 77-52, will meet Alabama in Final Four

BOSTON – UConn men’s basketball is storming back to the Final Four.

The reigning national champs blasted third-seeded Illinois in the second half on Saturday, turning a five-point lead into 30 in a flash behind the dominance of Donovan Clingan, and advanced to the program’s seventh national semifinal, second in a row, with a 77-52 win in Boston’s TD Garden.

At the final media timeout, 3:33 left with the Huskies up 72-41, coach Dan Hurley walked out to greet his players at midcourt and pumped up the crowd on his way back to the huddle.

“I finally felt safe. You see enough games, man, and it’s like I’m always concerned that something bad could happen. But we’ve defied the odds this year,” Hurley said.

The celebration had already begun when he got there.

“We knew the game was over,” point guard Tristen Newton said. The players called to Paul Wetteman, the program’s Director of Administration, “We were trying to see what time, what day we were leaving for Phoenix.”

The 25-point win set an NCAA Tournament record as the Huskies won their 10th consecutive tournament game by double-digits, surpassing Michigan State’s previous record of nine in a row from 2000-01. UConn won its first four tournament games by an average of 27.8 points and has only trailed for a total of 28 seconds.

“This is our March Madness. Everybody’s got a different story (and) this is our story. Dominating teams,” Alex Karaban said.

Illinois had no answer for Clingan on either end of the court as UConn’s star finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. According to ESPN Stats and Info, the Illini were 0-for-19 when they tried to score on him. The sophomore was named the East Regional Most Outstanding Player.

Karaban scored all 10 of his points in the second half as Cam Spencer recorded his first double-double of the year with 11 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Hassan Diarra provided a critical boost off the bench and finished with 11 points, three rebounds and handful of disruptive defensive plays.

Spencer and Stephon Castle, whose defense helped hold Illinois star Terrence Shannon Jr. to just eight points on 2-for-12 from the field, joined Clingan on the East Region All-Tournament team.

Clingan set the tone early, scoring the first seven points of the game as he patrolled the paint defensively with Spencer on the perimeter guarding stretch center Coleman Hawkins and Castle handling Shannon. He was credited for two first-half blocks but affected several others, and Illinois went scoreless through the first four minutes.

“I grew up dreaming of playing for the University of Connecticut. So to be able to wear this jersey every single day and play for such a historic and special program and insert myself – and my teammates inserting themselves – into history, it’s special,” Clingan said. “Everybody dreams of this as a young basketball player, and there’s only a certain percentage of people that make it to this level. Don’t take any moment for granted, go out, give it everything you’ve got, and I’m extremely blessed to be in this position.”

The Illini started to climb back with a scoring burst from point guard Marcus Domask, who hit a pair of 3s while Clingan took a short rest. The Huskies didn’t shoot it well either, just 10-for-30 from the field (33.3%) over the first 20 minutes. They missed their first 10 attempts from beyond the arc before Diarra landed one from the right wing to break a 23-23 tie. Newton, 0-for-6 in the first half, made a pair of free throws to put the Huskies up five at the break, 28-23.

“We knew that we were fine. We were shooting 9% from from 3, 33% from the field and still winning,” said Newton, who scored all five of his points from the free throw line. “Our defense was great and we just knew that once our offense started to come we were gonna blow the game open and just win by a lot of points.”

Clingan put UConn up 12 after stuffing an Illinois dunk attempt with one hand and then slamming one of his own, forcing an Illinois timeout less than three minutes into the second half. The Huskies hit another gear and continued to dominate behind Clingan and Karaban, who flushed a two-handed dunk through a foul in transition and caused the “Storrs North” crowd to erupt as he hung on the rim.

UConn scored 25 consecutive points to start the second half, continuing a 30-0 run over eight and a half minutes. The Huskies led by 30 before Illinois scored its first points more than seven minutes in and grew the lead to 31 with just under 12 minutes to go.

“Anytime we were inefficient in transition, these guys playing against the smaller lineup, Tristen, all the guards knew that the ball needed to go to Donovan tonight. That’s the beauty of the team,” Hurley said. “It was a special level of basketball that we were playing.”

Said Karaban: “I’m not going to lie, it didn’t feel real… We didn’t realize it was a 30-0 run, we didn’t realize any of that. We just felt like we had to keep going. That’s something I’ve never been a part of.”

“It felt like we could do nothing wrong,” Newton said.

UConn (35-3) is now 7-6 all-time in the Elite Eight.

The Huskies will meet 4-seed Alabama in the national semifinal on April 6. The Crimson Tide defeated 6-seed Clemson in the West Regional Final, 89-82 on Saturday night.