UConn Battles To The End
Richard Hamilton's rebound jumper in the lane at the buzzer, Connecticut's third shot in the final eight seconds, gave the second-seeded Huskies a 75-74 victory over Washington in the East Regional semifinals.
Connecticut (32-4) will play top-seeded and top-ranked North Carolina, which beat fourth-seeded Michigan State 73-58, in Saturday's regional final with a berth in the Final Four at stake.
No. 11 seed Washington (20-10) took its first lead at 74-73 with 33 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Donald Watts.
Connecticut called a timeout with 29 seconds left. Freshman point guard Khalid El-Amin dribbled the ball near midcourt until there were 10 seconds left. He drove toward the basket and passed the ball to center Jake Voskuhl, whose shot bounced off the rim and Hamilton got the rebound and shot, again with the ball coming off the rim.
After the ball was tipped from the other side, Hamilton grabbed the loose ball and hit a fadeaway jumper over 7-foot Patrick Femerling, the ball falling through the basket as the buzzer sounded. The Connecticut players all fell to the floor in a huge pile as the Huskies advanced to the regional finals for the third time in six round of 16 appearances in the '90s.
Hamilton, the Big East player of the year as a sophomore, finished with 22 points, 18 in the second half, while El-Amin had 19 on 7-for-20 shooting.
Watts led Washington, which beat sixth-seeded Xavier and 14th-seeded Richmond to reach the round of 16 for the first time since 1984, with 22 points, while 7-footer Todd MacCulloch had 18 and Deon Luton added 17.
Connecticut seemed to be in control in the matchup of teams named Huskies, leading 64-55 with 10:16 to play on a three-point play by Souleymane Wane. But Washington, the fourth-place team from the Pac-10 and the first of the four teams from that conference to lose in this tournament, went on an 8-0 run to get within 64-63 with 7:28 left.
Washington's defense was impressive during the run as Connecticut missed five shots and committed three turnovers in the spurt.
Hamilton hit a 3-pointer and Voskuhl added two free throws to get Connecticut's lead back to six, but Washington came back again, this time with a 5-0 run to make it 69-68 with 2:51 to play.
MacCulloch made one of two free throws with 1:29 left to tie it 71-71 and Hamilton's rebound basket gave Connecticut a 73-71 lead with 59 seconds to play.
The win was the 11th straight for Connecticut, the regular-season and tournament champions of the Big East, while Washington had a five-game winning streak snapped.
Connecticut has never been to the Final Four, while Washington was trying to get there for the second time and first in 35 years.
BACK TO MARCH MAYHEM
© 1998 SportsLine USA, Inc. All rights reserved