BOSTON — Dan Hurley sauntered throughout midcourt with 3:33 to play, a ultimate timeout amid one other March dismantling offering him a second to absorb the scene.
He confronted the group reverse his bench and caught his arms out vast, frightening the Huskies followers filling TD Backyard to roar. “Our s—!” he shouted.
Up by 29 factors with time dwindling, he might exhale at the least.
“I lastly felt like we had it,” Hurley stated, smiling.
By now, UConn is used to celebrating the ultimate buzzer. For the second consecutive 12 months, the Huskies are going again to the Last 4. And for the second consecutive 12 months, they did it in dominant trend, pummeling third-seeded Illinois 77-52 within the Elite Eight on Saturday in a recreation that didn’t even really feel that shut.
What was a decent recreation for 20 minutes grew to become a demolition job when the Huskies used a 30-0 run — together with 25 consecutive factors to start the second half — to show a tie recreation right into a 53-23 laugher.
UConn’s 7-foot-2 middle, Donovan Clingan, was on the middle of it, disrupting Illinois defensively and rocking the rim offensively. Clingan completed with 22 factors, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks and three steals in simply 22 minutes, however his influence went past the field rating. There have been the altered photographs and the tipped rebounds.
When he was on the ground, Illinois — the second-most environment friendly offense within the nation — couldn’t rating.
In Clingan’s first 17 minutes on the ground Saturday, UConn outscored Illinois 34-4. Sure, 4.
Clingan was additionally in the midst of the run that determined the sport. After he cut up a pair of free throws to place the Huskies up 33-23, Clingan met Illinois’ Quincy Guerrier on the rim, melting away his try at an emphatic dunk.
On the different finish of the ground, he collected a Stephon Citadel move and completed a two-handed slam of his personal, assembly his teammates in entrance of the UConn bench for a chest bump as Illinois known as a timeout.
DONOVAN CLINGAN IS ON FIRE 🔥#MarchMadness @UConnMBB pic.twitter.com/dPcKzvvrUn
— NCAA March Insanity (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 30, 2024
“That was like, ‘whoa,’” guard Hassan Diarra stated.
UConn, which defeated fifth-seeded San Diego State by 30 factors on Thursday, has raced to the Last 4 with 4 victories by a mean margin of 27.8 factors. The Huskies’ 10 NCAA Match wins over the past two seasons have all come by double digits.
Illinois, with its high-powered offense, was regarded as one of many few groups that would pose a problem to the UConn machine. And it appeared to catch the Huskies on an off day. Connecticut matched a season-low with three made 3-pointers and endured 1-of-12 capturing mixed from guards Tristen Newton and Stephon Citadel.
However the Huskies held Illini main scorer Terrence Shannon Jr. to eight factors on 2-of-12 capturing and stored the Illini off the scoreboard for the primary 4 minutes of the primary half and the primary 7:19 of the second.
“When your protection is elite, which ours is, and your offense is elite, which ours is, and rebounding margins present that we’re an elite rebounding crew and we typically play tougher than our opponent, we share the ball and have depth with totally different individuals,” Hurley stated. “Our first-team All-American level guard (Newton) didn’t make a area purpose right now, and we shot 3-for-17 from 3 and went on a 30-0 run. So the depth.
“We’re not flawed in any specific means, which makes you as bulletproof on this match as attainable to outlive dangerous capturing or a foul efficiency from a star like Tristan.”
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(Photograph: Winslow Townson / USA In the present day)