Alabama 72 - 86 UCONN summary, stats, scores and highlights | NCAA Final Four

Clingan iced the game late on, from both the offensive and defensive end of the floor. He had 18 points, 5 rebounds and 4 blocks to send his team to the National Championship and set up a match up of monsters between he and Zach Edey. UCONN will be looking for their first back-to-back bid in program history and the first in the NCAA since the Florida Gators did it in 2006 and 2007. 

Samson Johnson had all of the Huskies 7 points off the bench, and added to the big run that put UCONN up and kept them in the lead for the rest of the way. 

The Freshman Castle is a star in the making. He controlled the game off the dribble, scoring 21 points and while he only had two assists, he seemed to be in command of his team.

Each team had their share of runs to start the second half, and the game was tied at 56-56 at one point but the Huskies pulled would go on a decisive run and bury Alabama midway through the half. 

The Huskies starting five had 79 of the 86 points at the end of the game, and no one on the starting five had less than 12 points. This is without question the most complete team in the tournament and they showed that again against the Crimson Tide. 

The lead went back and forth through the first half and into the second as Bama's perimeter shooting kept them in the game but at a certain point, UCONN's depth rose to the surface. This team has a lot of scoring options and they used them all in the Final Four. 

Donovan Clingan was instrumental for his team on Saturday night. He protected the paint, grabbed rebounds, dominated down low and even ran the floor from time to time. 

The UCONN Huskies are headed back to the National Championship game for a second straight year after outlasting the Alabama Crimson Tide in the second semifinal from State Farm Stadium. 

Freshman Stephon Castle came out and set the tone early on scoring the first five points of the night. He started hot and kept it hot for the rest of the game. The Huskies would need his quick start after Alabama came out scorching from downtown. 

IT'S ALL OVER!! THE UCONN HUSKIES ARE HEADED BACK TO THE TITLE GAME LOOKING FOR BACK TO BACK CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN PROGRAM HISTORY. 

Griffen gets the lay up to go and that will be the final bucket of the night. 

Spencer with a three ball to put the cherry on top of this Final Four victory!

Nelson with a lay up but that comes a little too late for Bama. 

Newton strokes the three ball and that's officially going to do it for UCONN!

clingand with back to back dunks on consecutive possessions and that is going to seal this victory. 

Sears steps into a three ball from the top of the key, and he's got 24! We still have a game with under 2:45 to go. 

Timout UCONN up by 10

Karaban with another three ball from the top of the key and he might have just iced this game!

Sears to the line after the foul on Spencer and he hits both out fo the timeout. 

We are headed to the final TV timeout with 4:00 to go. 

Spencer pulls up from the mid range and get the J to go. 

Nelson to the line after the foul on Diarra and he hits both FTs. 

Clingan with the offensive board and put back and the lead is up to 10 with 5:00 to go. 

Entry pass from Spencer to Clingan who gets the jump hook to go over a double team. 

We are headed to the under 8:00 TV timeout here from Arizona. 

Sears got bumped from behind, and laid it up while falling to the ground! He gets the bucket and the foul on Castle, dropping the FT  to complete the thee point play. 

Newton flashed to the corner for three and Castle hit him for the triple try!

Sears with a tough off balanced shot from outside the lane and he gets it to fall ovr the UCONN big man. 

Castle missed the three ball but Karaban was there for the offensive board and put it back to stretch the UCONN run to 8-0! 

Timeout Bama with 10:27 to go in the second semifinal

Pick and roll from Spencer to Jounson for the two handed slam down the lane!

Castle off the dribble and goes into traffic to float one up and in. 

Castle fighting for the offensive rebound and he gets sent to the line where he hits both FTs. 

Nelson backing down Clingan in the paint and hits the jump hook with the right hand. 

Spencer to the FT line and he hits one of two after the foul on Nelson. 

Nelson goes back into the body of Clingan and hits the fader in the lane. 

Nelson goes right down Main St. and throws it down on UCONN!

Estrada saved the ball on the baseline and found Sears in the corner for three!

Newton drew the defense and lobbed it over the top for an alley oop to Castle on the baseline cut!

TImeout Bama with 15:31 to go in the 2nd half. 

Karaban with the pull up from long range in transition and drills it from the wing!

Dump off from the baseline by Castle and Clingan got the jump hook to fall. 

Griffen with the elbow jumper off the catch and shoot and he hits the mid range J. 

Estrada on the up and under and he flips it up and in off the glass from the left side. 

Estrada needed a three ball and he hits the step back for Bama's first bucket of the second half. 

Karaban off the dribble and he slices through the paint for the finger roll. 

Castle picks up where he left off in the first half with a lay up off the pick and roll with Newton. 

Sears ended the first half with a runner in the lane to finish the half a perfect 5/5 from the field with 11 points. 

Spencer has 8 along with Clingan, while Castle is leading the Huskies with 13 points as UCONN lead by 4 at the half. 

Clingan showed he can get up and down the floor despite being 7'2". He has 8 points and two blocks on the other end. 

UCONN tried using their size to counter act the speed and agility of Alabama. Samson Johnson had five off the bench, but it was Donovan Clingan who dominated down low. 

The game has gone back and forth a handful of times, thanks to Bama's ability to hit threes. They hit 8 in the first half, Wrightsell had two of them. 

The Huskies got off to a quick start thanks to Stephon Castle who had the first five points of the game for UCONN. 

WE ARE HEADED TO HALFTIME FROM ARIZONA!!!

We will determine the second semifinalist over the next 20 minutes, but first lets look at the first half highlights. 

Sears boogies into the paint and goes up and under for the final bucket of the first half. 

Clingan to the line and he hits both FTs after the foul on Pringle. 

Sears off the inbound and he hits the three ball from the corner! He's 4/4 from the field!

Timeout UCONN with 43 to go in the 1st half. 

Clingan diving to the iron and Diarra found him for the lay up down the paint. 

Spencer hesitates in the lane and gets the defense off it's feet before floating it up and in. 

Sears wiggles down the lane and finger rolls it up and in. 

Spencer jacks the three off the inbound and sticks it from the corner. 

Nelson to the line and he hits both FTs after the foul on Johnson. 

We are headed to the under 4:00 timeout with 3:12 to go in the first half!

Newton drives and hangs in the air, banking it home off the runner. 

Newton answers back with a spot up three from the top of the key. 

Wrightsell drills the three ball off the kickout from Sears! That snaps a three minute run without a point. 

Castle fouled by Estrada and he hits one of two at the line. 

Newton to the line after the foul on Sears and he hits one of two FTs. 

TV Timeout with 7:31 to go in the 1st half. 

Estrada with the step back and he drills the three ball... Bama is 6/9 from DT!

Castle to the line and he hits both FTs after the foul on Pringle. The freshman has 12 already. 

Clingan drew a double team and he lobbed it over the top for Castle on an easy. 

Pringle to the line after the foul on Clingan and he hits both FTs. 

Clingan running the floor and Newton found him with a half court pass that led to a big slam on the break!

Timeout Alabama with 9:30 to go in the first half. 

Clingan comes out of the timeout and gets the jump hook to go down low. 

Spencer finds Johnson again, and this time he jams it home with two hands!

Timeout with 10:24 to go in the first half.

Griffen pulls up for three and he drills the long ball from the wingl 

Johnson cuts to the rack and Spencer found him for the easy lay up. 

Sears puts it on the deck and finishes with the lay up in traffic. 

Johnson to the line and he hits one of two FTs after the foul on Walters. 

Wrightsell drills the three ball from the top of the key and Bama have started this first half hot from DT. 

Baseline drive from Sears and he hits the off balanced runner in the paint. 

Karaban to the line after the foul on Nelson, and he hits both FTs. 

Estrada with the floater from outside the lane and he has the last five points for Alabama. 

Estrada steps back and drills the three ball from the wing!. Bama is 3/4 from DT. 

TV timeout with under 16:00 to go in the first half. 

Spencer gets the offensive board, dribbles it out to the top of the key and drills the long ball off the turn around!

Nelson goes to rack and lays it up off the glass. 

Castle jacks another long ball and he's got 7 points on the night. 

Estrada with the offensive board and kick out to Griffen who drills the three ball of the second attempt. 

Karaban to the line after the foul on Griffen and h hits both FTs. 

Castle goes to the rack this time and he's got the first five points of UCONN's night. 

Castle responds with a long ball for UCONN and the Huskies are on the board. 

Nelson gets going from downtown on a three ball from the wing!

WE ARE UNDERWAY FROM ARIZONA IN THE SECOND SEMIFINAL!

UCONN tourney history

While Bama is in unfamiliar territory, there aren’t many teams who are more accustomed to being on this stage, especially in the modern era. While UCLA and Kansas and Kentucky get more of the accolades for being the most storied programs in college basketball history, UCONN has been the most successful team of this century. Since 1999 they have made the Final Four seven times and won it all five times. Jim Calhoun pioneer that led the Huskies to their first title, and he would end up winning three championship with UCONN. Kevin Ollie had one of the most improbable title runs ever in 2014 as Huskies won title number four, and then last year Dan Hurley returned the program back to title glory with a run to the championship game as a four seed, and now has a chance to bring the university their first back to back bid, and the first team to do so since the Florida Gators in 2006 and 2007. 

Bama's tourney history

If you have been reading our preview to this game, you will know that this is rarified air for the University of Alabama. We are used to seeing their football program completing for National Championships but this is the first time we have ever seen the Crimson Tide survive this long in the Big Dance. Before this year the farthest they have got in the tourney was the Elite Eight. That came back in 2004, and now 20 years later, Bama is back on the National Stage looking to bring a basketball trophy to an already full trophy case full of football National Championships.

Star watch: UCONN

The Huskies have a one-two back court combo that makes them almost impossible to slow down. Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer lead a first five that all averages 10 points a game or more as Dan Hurley’s guys have the most balanced attack in the game. Newton is a Mr. Do-It-All, averaging 15 points a game, while grabbing 6.7 rebound and 6.1 assists while Spencer is a sharp shooter, dropping 44% of this threes while grabbing almost five rebounds a game. Neither have had the kind of jaw dropping runs in the tournament that we have seen from guys like Zach Edy or Mark Sears, but like they have done all season long, the Huskies have a handful of ways to hurt you, and that’s what they have done in their four blowout wins leading up to tonight’s Final Four matchup.

Star watch Alabama 

Alabama may be coming into this Final Four weekend as the most under the radar team of all the semifinalists, but it’s not for a lack of star power. They have a super scorer in Mark Sears who is one of the top scorers in the league at 21.5 a game. He is a fantastic in and out guard who can beat you off the dribble or from the perimeter and averaged 21.5 points a game while shooting 50% from the field and 43.4% from downtown. He put up 30 in the game against College of Charleston and is averaging 24.2 points a game in the tournament. He is going to have to have a huge game again tonight if the Crimson Tide are going to have any chance of reaching their first NCAA title game.  

How they got here: UCONN

The Huskies had a pretty smooth run to the Big Dance in their title defense season. They lost just three games all season and were the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament after winning the Big East title before Selection Sunday. They have breezed by every team in the tournament, winning each game by 25 points or more. It has been a dominant run through the tourney, starting with their 39 point win over 16 seeded Stetson. They took down Northwestern in the second round, beating the Wildcats by 27, and then had a 30 point blowout in a rematch of last year’s title game against San Diego St. Their Elite Eight game against Illinois was the closest game they have had to play in the tournament, but that was a 25 point victory to clinch a second straight birth in the Final Four, and set up a match up against a team that has never been to this stage of the Big Dance before.

How they got here: Alabama 

Bama were a solid team in the SEC this year, ranked for most of the year, and went into their conference tournament as a top 25 team in the nation. They ended up losing their first game in the conference tournament to Florida which left them with a four seed coming into the Big Dance. They took down the 13 seed College of Charleston in the first round of the tournament, and in had another matchup against a high seed to get to the Sweet 16. They eased past Grand Canyon University to set up a match up with the one seed in the West, North Carolina. Bama went down to the wire with the Tar Heels but edged the top seeded team out to set up an Elite Eight match up with Clemson. That was another tight battle with an ACC that went down to the wire, and Bama topped the Tigers in a high scoring second half to reach their first Final Four in program history.

We are live from Arizona

Hello everyone and welcome to State Farm Stadium where the UCONN Huskies are back in the Final Four for a second straight year. The Huskies were the top team in the regular season, and earned the number one overall seed. They were expected to be here after returning a handful of their key pieces from last year’s title run, but if this season has shown us anything it’s that the favorites are never safe in college basketball anymore. Alabama on the other hand wasn’t supposed to be here. They were a decent team during the regular season but have caught a lot of people by surprise in their run to their first Final Four in program history. It’s the new kids on the block taking on the wily vet on college basketball’s biggest stage.

Alabama vs. Purdue

We are set for the late tip in the second semifinal from Glendale, as the defending champion UCONN Huskies continue their bid for back-to-back titles. One of the most storied programs in college basketball looks to add to their trophy case this weekend, but they will have to fight through an Alabama Crimson Tide team that is in their first Final Four in program history. It’s UCONN and Alabama set for a Final Four showdown from the desert and AS English will be with you all night providing live stats, scores highlights and analysis of tonight’s late tip from State Farm Stadium.