UConn’s last stand: Defense lifts Huskies past Duke into NCAA championship game

By GERRY deSIMAS, JR.
Connecticut Sports Online
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, April 3, 2004 — Fourteen years ago, Duke’s Christian Lattener broke the hearts of the Huskies and their fans with his last-second jump shot that kept UConn from the 1990 NCAA Final Four as the Blue Devils won the Eastern Regional final. In 1999, UConn got the ultimate revenge but beating the favored Blue Devils for the NCAA championship.

But on Saturday night at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, it got even better. Fighting with the desperation of a team at the edge of oblivion, the Huskies erased an 11-point deficit and outscored Duke 12-3 in the final 3:28 to beat Duke, 79-78 and earn its second berth in the NCAA championship game on Monday against Georgia Tech.

Junior Emeka Okafor missed nearly the entire first half after picking up two fouls in four minutes but he had 18 points in the second half including several huge plays in the final 3:28. His baseline jumper over Nick Horvath with 1:18 left cut the Duke lead to one, 75-74.

After Duke missed a three-point shot, the Okafor’s short jumper bounced off the rim but freshman Josh Boone (9 pts., game-high 14 rebounds) tipped the rebound to Okafor, who grabbed it and went back to the hoop and scoring for a 76-75 lead with 25 seconds left. With 12 seconds left, Okafor stripped Duke’s J.J. Redick who was driving to the lane. Rash Anderson sank two foul shots for a 78-75 lead.

“We just kept believing in ourselves,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. “It got really tough for out there and it took 10 or 15 minutes for us to get our toughness back. But once we did, we were pretty good. Sometimes you have to take the last breath out of a team (Duke). We were able to do that with some great plays and some great, great defense.”

UConn plays Georgia Tech, a team that beat the Huskies easily by 16 points in November in the semifinals of the preseason NIT.

The UConn women play Minnesota in the semifinals on Sunday.

This was originally published at Connecticut Sports Online