Defense, balanced effort have UConn one win shy of Final Four berth

UConn’s Shabazz Napier (Photo courtesy UConn via Facebook).

NEW YORK – Guards Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright set the table and let their teammates come in and collect the goodies. Napier and Boatright’s hot first half shooting gave the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team some breathing space Friday night in the NCAA tournament at Madison Square Garden against No. 3 Iowa State.

UConn’s defense clamped down on the Cyclones and junior DeAndre Daniels exploded for a team-high 27 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Huskies into the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament with a 81-76 victory in front of a vocal MSG crowd.

Napier and Boatright scored 22 of UConn’s first 32 points as the Huskies built a 10-point lead. In the second half, Daniels was superb scoring 13 of UConn’s first 15 points. He scored on fadeaway jumpers, a turnaround jumper, a three-point field goal and a rebound of a miss from Napier. 

“He was pressing. He wanted to make a big impact,” Napier said of Daniels. “I told him to calm down and let the game come to you. DeAndre is a scorer. We kept feeding him and he got super hot.”

UConn (29-8) will face No. 4 Michigan State Sunday at 2:20 p.m. in New York in the East Regional final for a berth in next week’s Final Four. The Huskies last played in the Final Four in 2011 when they won the national championship. A year ago, they were sitting home, banned from post-season play for poor academic perfomance in previous seasons.

The Huskies led by as many as 17 points in the second half, 49-35 with 14:19 remaining in the game. UConn had a 16-point lead with 7:37 remaining after Napier drove into the lane but kicked the ball back out to Daniels for the jumper.

But the Cyclones (28-8) have not been fazed by double digit deficits this season. Eight times, Iowa State has rallied from deficits of 10 points or more to win. The Cyclones went on an 18-6 surge to cut the UConn lead to four, 67-63 with a long three-point shot from DeAndre Kane with 2:16 remaining.

But Niels Giffey, who had seven big rebounds for UConn, drained a key three-point shot with 1:44 remaining to extend the lead back to seven, 70-63. This time, it was Boatright with the nice kickout pass to the open man on the wing. UConn sank 20 of 21 foul shots in the second half to secure the win.

Iowa State’s Dustin Hogue had a career-high 34 points on 15-of-19 shooting with six rebounds and two steals. Kane finished with 16 points while Monte Morris had 12. Hogue’s 34 points tied a school record for most points in an NCAA tournament game.

Thousands of cheering UConn fans in the Garden brought a smile to the face of head coach Kevin Ollie but he credited the hard play of his team on the defensive side of the ball.

“We had the crowd and it’s a great arena but at the end of the day, it’s a basketball game and you have to play good defense,” Ollie said. “You have to win the individual battles and play collectively as a group. We hang our hat on defense.”

Napier and Boatwright combined for 22 points in the first half while Iowa State, as a team, had 26 points on 9-of-27 shooting. Iowa State had averaged 89 points in its first two tournament victories. They had just 47 points with seven minutes remaining.

“We got some good looks but we missed a lot of shots,” Kane said. “Give credit to Connecticut. They played a great game.”

Napier finished with 19 points and had five of UConn’s nine assists. It seemed like there were more because the Huskies passed the ball well throughout the game. Boatright added 16 points while Terrence Samuels finished with 10.

“We have to keep playing hard, stay together and keep doing the things that got us here – defending, rebounding and sharing the basketball, sharing the game,” Ollie said.