The SMU Mustangs survived a crazy comeback from the UCONN Huskies to win the AAC tournament 62-54 in Hartford, CT, at the XL Center. It was a game in which SMU led by double digits for basically the entire game, but just like UCONN always does, it hung around and made it a close game down the stretch.
UCONN had to look for answers on offense because star guard Ryan Boatright was banged up and just had an off day. He finished with just seven points and shot 1 of 12 from the floor. In addition, Boatright fouled out with 45.1 seconds left, which sealed UCONN's fate at the end. UCONN instead got 29 points out of Rodney Purvis, who sparked the comeback down the stretch.
The Mustangs took the lead with 16:20 left in the first half and never looked back from there. SMU had some balanced scoring all around as four players finished in double digits, led by Markus Kennedy, who finished with 15 points. Point guard Nic Moore, who makes this team go, ended the game with 11 points.
SMU took a 33-19 lead into the half, and they were feeling good but had to know that UCONN had a run left in them. Then, with the Mustangs up 17 with just over 10 minutes to play, the UCONN comeback started. They slowly started to chip away at the deficit and got it down to five points with 3:22 to play. UCONN was in a great position to take this down to the wire, but the Huskies could not make the clutch shots when they needed them down the stretch.
UCONN was a team that was looking to burst someone's bubble as the Huskies needed to win this game to earn the automatic berth from the AAC. The Huskies, instead, are likely headed to the NIT a season after winning the national championship.
SMU, on the other hand, is looking good heading into the tournament. Head coach Larry Brown is finally going back to the tournament, and he has his team riding high off of this AAC tournament championship. We will see where the selction committee places them when the brackets are relseased.