It was supposed to be the battle of the big men as UConn’s 7-2, 280-pound center Donovan Clingan took on Purdue’s 7-foot-4, 300-pound Zach Edey, but the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship didn’t turn out that way.
It was Huskies’ guard Tristan Newton who led his team with 20 points and 7 assists, and in so doing earned Most Outstanding Player honors for the Final Four for a second year in a row.
Sure, Edey had a dazzling 37 points, scoring more than half of his team’s 60 points, but it wasn’t enough against a team effort from UConn, which outrebounded the Boilermakers 33-27, and ended up scoring 75 points in a well-distributed effort which saw four players in double figures to Purdue’s two.
The first half ended with a score of 36-30 in favor of UConn, and the Huskies took over in the second half, broadening their lead in the first few minutes after halftime, which they never came close to relinquishing.
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