With a little under 10 minutes in the second half, Jaylin Stewart hit a three-pointer to extend the UConn Huskies lead to 14 points. And then Illinois started to chip away.

Tomislav Ivisic kept getting the ball in the post, and either scoring on a layup or drawing a foul and hitting his free throws, and suddenly with 7 minutes left, the Fighting Illini had cut the lead to 6.

With 5 minutes, Andrej Stojakovic drove to the basket and hit a layup and the lead was down to 4 points. But that set off an important stretch for the Huskies. They finally got the ball down to Tarris Reed Jr, who scored in the lane. And then after Keaton Wagler missed a crazy deep three-pointer, Alex Karaban got the rebound and started the fast break getting the ball to Solo Ball for a huge dunk – and the lead was back to 8 points. Illinois would continue to try to chip away, and they got the lead back down to 4 with about 90 seconds left when Wagler drove the lane and made the shot.

UConn took the shot clock down, and found Alex Karaban outside for a three-pointer, but he missed the three-pointer. However, Silas Demary Jr outleaped everyone for the ball and took the ball back out to drain more time. And at the end of that, with about 50 seconds left, they got the ball to Braylon Mullins, and the freshman drilled the three-pointer to give the Huskies a 7 point lead.

Wagler would quickly counter with a step-back three-pointer to get the lead back to 4 points, but that would be as close as Illinois would get. Silas Demary Jr hit both free-throws, Jayden Ross would hit a free-throw, Reed would make both free-throws, and meanwhile, Wagler and Ben Humrichous would miss their desperation three-pointers. And the Huskies would finish with a 71-62 victory to send themselves to the NCAA Championship Game! Congratulations to the UConn Huskies!