Raleigh, n, c. – A third consecutive national title for UCONN can be improbable, but it is always possible.
Alex Karaban came with A critical pointer at 3 And a float in the way during a late race that helped the Huskies maintain Oklahoma 67-59 Friday evening in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
“Someone will have to put us in this tournament so that we leave,” said Uconn Dan Hurley coach about his team, who had a regular rock season and even fell from The top 25 AP.
Karaban collected 13 points and seven rebounds for Huskies (24-10), n ° 8 in seed in the West region. They extended their sequence from March Madness victories at 13 games, tied with Duke from 1991 to 1993 for the second longer without missing tournaments.
The 3 of Karaban on the grip of the right wing at 3:40 gave Uconn an advance of four points, and he followed with the Floater at the brand 2:18 which pushed Uconn in front 64-58.
Solo Ball scored 14 points to help the Huskies move forward to face Florida’s seeded, a popular choice at the same time to end the Uconn race and win the national title.
“Once we got out of the first round, we were quite good,” said Hurley.
First-year student Jeremiah Fears had 20 points to lead the ninth seeded Sooners (20-14), who pulled 32.1% and made 3 of the 17 to 3 points.
“I could not have asked for better efforts from our guys, especially defensively,” said the coach Porter Moser.
Take -out
Oklahoma: The Sooners were part of the southeast conference record of 14 NCAA offers, although they are one of the six dry teams with a losing league record to enter. They went 7-14 after December.
Uconn: Huskies are held alongside Duke (1991-92) and Florida (2006-07) as only teams to win consecutive titles since the UCLA seven series from 1967 to 1973. Although they have not looked like a national candidate since they lost three consecutive games in MAUI in November, Difficult offensive which included the recruit Liam McNeeley missing 11 of the 13 shots.
Very ending
Karaban, a starter in the two points of the title of Uconn, went in the last minutes with the Huskies leading only 57-56. The 3 pointer was the big one, with Karaban firing quickly.
“I spent one in the area and I should have shot this one too, and I was not going to redo this error,” said Karaban.
Key
Oklahoma obtained a lay-up of Jalon Moore (13 points) to equalize the match at 54 at the brand six minutes, but the Sooners only managed the rest of the game.
Moser said the Sooners had several possessions with guards leading to painting to try “trees” against the Uconn front line during these critical moments.
Oklahoma also only made 12 of the 27 layups (44.4%).
“I thought that our possession of effort after possession was underway,” he said. “It is not easy to keep as much movement as they did. I thought we had kept it very well. We just had difficult goods in the section, consecutively, trying to take their great men in there.”
The next
The Huskies face the Gators on Sunday.
