Last night, in the great NRG Stadium in Houston, the semi-finals of March Madness gave their verdict: San Diego State first beat Florida Atlantic at the buzzer, while UConn dominated Miami thereafter. The two teams will meet on Monday to try to win the title of national champion.
UConn vs San Diego State.
Here is the poster for the grand finale. Not necessarily the one we expected at the very start of March Madness 2023, but the two teams took the matches one after the other to earn their place on the biggest stage.
The Aztecs first.
Opposed to Florida Atlantic in the first game of the night, San Diego State struggled for a long time: -7 at halftime, -14 with only 14 minutes to play in the second period, in short, it didn’t feel very good for the former Kawhi Leonard University. But the Aztecs took out the barbed wire at the right time while planting from 3-pointers, going 16-4 in five minutes to their evening opponent. The exploits of Alijah Martin (19 points in the second half alone) have long allowed Florida Atlantic to keep the lead despite the big momentum of San Diego State. A long time, until… the last second and this buzzer-beater from Lamont Butler (72-71)!
There, on the other hand, no buzzer-beater and much less suspense. True to form, the Huskies activated steamroller mode against Miami to quietly win 72-59. “I’m not really excited guys, because I knew we were going to play the final on Monday” said coach Dan Hurley after the game, aware of the power released by his team since the start of March Madness. Some may see this as arrogance, but remember that UConn won its five games with an average difference of 20 points. What to be confident in all circumstances. Inside Adam Sanogo was again dominant with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks in 26 minutes, while Jordan Hawkins added 13 units with three award-winning shots. The Miami Hurricanes, guided by a superb offense so far, couldn’t cope with UConn’s dominance on both sides of the floor.
The final
- UConn (#4) – San Diego State (#5): Monday to Tuesday night, 3:20 a.m.
