UConn returns to the national championship game as the Huskies outlast Alabama 86-72... as they look to defend their title in battle of the No. 1 seeds vs. Purdue on Monday

A year after winning the men's national championship, UConn is back in the title game after outlasting Alabama 86-72 in the Final Four.

The top-seeded Huskies (36-3) had put on a March Madness show before arriving in the desert, a stretch that included a 30-0 run in a decimation of Illinois in the Elite Eight.

This was more of a slow burn, with UConn withstanding an early wave of 3-pointers before holding the Crimson Tide (25-12) without a field goal during a five-minute second-half stretch.

Stephon Castle led the Huskies with 21 points, while Donovan Clingan added 18 in the win. Alex Karaban and Cam Spencer both added 14 as well.

For Alabama, who had reached its first Final Four in school history, Mark Sears led the way with 24 points but the Huskies ultimately proved to have too much offensive firepower.

The Huskies' Final Four win certainly wasn't as easy as the final score indicated.

Alabama held its own in the program's first Final Four appearance, going toe to toe with a team that trailed 28 total seconds its first four NCAA Tournament games.

Crafty point guard Sears did his best to keep Alabama in it, while Grant Nelson had another big game in March Madness, finishing with 19 points, 15 rebounds and one highlight-reel dunk over Clingan.

The teams were tied at 56 with 12:44 remaining, though Alabama never led in the second half.

Next up for the Huskies will be what should be a much more physical test against 7-foot-4, 300-pound Zach Edey and Purdue in Monday's national championship game. 

'A battle of the giants,' UConn coach Dan Hurley said. 'I think it´s just great for college basketball. Us and Purdue have clearly been the two best teams in the country the last two years. I think it´s just great for college basketball to get the two big dogs playing on Monday.'

Last March, the Boilermakers became only the second No. 1 seed to lose to a 16-seed by falling to Fairleigh Dickinson. That loss dogged the Boilermakers all year, even as they won the Big Ten regular-season race and spent the entire season looking like a title favorite, with redshirt freshman Cameron Heide noting the team heard chants of 'FDU! FDU!' from opposing fans during the year.

Now Purdue (34-4) can follow that path to redemption, down to winning a first NCAA title.

'It´s everything we´ve worked for, everything we thought about,' guard Fletcher Loyer said. 'A lot of late nights, can´t even sleep because you´re thinking about it.

'It´s been tough. But we fought. We´re going to keep fighting. We´ve got 40 more minutes until we´re national champs. We´re going to push everybody as far as we can, and we´re going to play as hard as we can.'

 Purdue's first Final Four since 1980 now includes a trip to the program's first title game since falling to UCLA in 1969.

'Everybody wants to talk about winning it,' Purdue coach Matt Painter said. 'I said, man, you got to get yourself in position before you can win one. It´s like winning a national championship, you can talk all you want, but if you´re not going to play on Monday, you don´t have a chance.

Purdue handled NC State 63-50 earlier on Friday night, led by 20 points and 12 rebounds from Edey. 

If UConn can survive its matchup vs. Purdue, it will be the first repeat national champion since Florida in 2006-07