UW Falls At Buzzer Uconn Latest To Win On Heroic Shot

The final 29.1 seconds of the University of Washington’s storybook postseason seemed to run in slow motion, saturated with suspense.

At the end, there was Richard Hamilton at the bottom of a pile of Connecticut Huskies, celebrating a 75-74 victory over Washington, the Cinderella of the East Regional. It was Hamilton’s basket with .8 seconds remaining that set off the celebration and ended Washington’s stay in the NCAA Tournament.

Washington (20-10) took its first and only lead of the game when Donald Watts, completely exhausted after playing the entire game, sank a 3-pointer from the left wing for a 74-73 lead with 33.2 seconds remaining.

Connecticut called a timeout with 29 seconds remaining.

“When you go to the sidelines at a timeout you never think you’re going lose,” Watts said.

“I thought I put us over the top but they didn’t give up and they won.”

Connecticut freshman Khalid El-Amin dipped into the lane and fed Jake Voskuhl who missed a layup. Then Hamilton tried and missed. The teams played hot potato with the ball until it was tipped back to Hamilton, stationed just below the circle in the lane. With no time to think, Hamilton put the ball up …

The UConn bench rushed Hamilton and El-Amin chased down the ball and threw it into the crowd of Connecticut fans. Watts found his father Slick for comfort. Slick gave his son a hug and kissed him on the cheek.

For UConn (32-4), it brought back memories of Tate George in 1990 when the Connecticut guard hit a buzzer-beater in the East Regional semifinals that beat Clemson. The victory instantly branded UConn as a national force.

“In a season of buzzer-beaters, we add our name to the list,” said UConn coach Jim Calhoun. “I guess we wanted to be included in everything, so we included ourselves in buzzer-beaters.”

For Washington, however, it brought back painful memories.

Back in January with 5.1 seconds remaining, Stanford’s Kris Weems ripped a victory away from UW with a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“We’ve been in that situation before, and we didn’t want it to happen again,” Watts said, as he stood, wet-eyed in the locker room. “When it happened, at that moment, you’re thinking, ‘God, is this really happening again?’

“But we can’t let a loss like this put a gloom on the season. We achieved a lot. We were in the Sweet 16, but we wanted to be in the Elite Eight, the Final Four. I’m just fortunate I have an opportunity to come back and do it again.”

A month ago when Washington’s season appeared to be fading, no one could have predicted the team’s imminent postseason success.

Yet even the attainment of the Huskies’ unforeseen Sweet 16 appearance couldn’t cleanse the anguish of Thursday’s loss to Connecticut. There wasn’t a dry eye in UW’s locker room after the game. From athletic director Barbara Hedges to redshirt sophomore Greg Clark, everyone felt the pain.

“I told them that they’ve put themselves in Husky history,” UW coach Bob Bender said. “People won’t remember the record, but they’ll remember this team and this game.”

Several times throughout the game, UConn left the door cracked enough to allow UW to sneak in, advance to the Elite Eight against North Carolina and increase national legitimacy for its program. With 5:54 remaining, Hamilton hit a 3-pointer to give UConn a 67-63 lead. Connecticut didn’t score another field goal until 59.3 seconds left on a basket by Hamilton.

“I thought the whole second half we were a whole lot better defensively,” Bender said. “We knew we’d see ball screens down the stretch and defended that well. What we didn’t want was to give up an open three or foul and we didn’t want to play cautiously.”

With 1:59 remaining, Watts hit Patrick Femerling for a layup to cut UConn’s lead to 71-70. Todd MacCulloch made 1 of 2 free throws and the game was tied with 1:29 left. Then Hamilton scored and Watts seemed to take the game by the throat with his trey.

Then Hamilton heisted Washington’s dream.

“We were having so much fun here,” MacCulloch said. “To have it end like this is unbelievable.

“It definitely stings. It stings. It’s hard to look at right now, but we’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”

UConn 75, UW 74

Washington (20-10) - Watts 7-19 7-8 22, Green 1-2 0-0 2, MacCulloch 7-12 4-5 18, Wooten 1-3 0-0 2, Luton 6-14 4-4 17, Dickau 0-1 0-0 0, Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Femerling 3-4 1-3 7, Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Walcott 3-6 0-0 6. Totals 28-62 16-20 74.

Connecticut (32-4) - Freeman 2-3 6-6 10, Hamilton 8-16 4-4 22, Voskuhl 3-4 3-3 9, Moore 1-3 2-3 4, El-Amin 7-20 3-4 19, Hardnett 1-2 2-2 4, Wane 1-1 1-1 3, Jones 2-3 0-0 4, Klaiber 0-0 0-0 0, Harrison 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-52 21-23 75.

Halftime-Connecticut 47, Washington 39. 3-Point goals- Washington 2-10 (Watts 1-4, Luton 1-5, Wooten 0-1), Connecticut 4-14 (Hamilton 2-5, El-Amin 2-8, Moore 0-1). Fouled out- None. Rebounds-Washington 33 (MacCulloch 10), Connecticut 32 (Hamilton, Voskuhl 6). Assists-Washington 12 (Watts 4), Connecticut 9 (El-Amin 4). Total fouls-Washington 17, Connecticut 23. A-23,235.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NCAA GLANCE Thursday’s games East semifinals N. Carolina 73, Michigan State 58 Connecticut 75, Washington 74 West semifinals Utah 65, West Virginia 62 Arizona 87, Maryland 79 Today’s games South semifinals Duke (31-3) vs. Syracuse (26-8) Kentucky (31-4) vs. UCLA (24-8) Midwest semifinals Purdue (28-7) vs. Stanford (28-4) Rhode Is. (24-8) vs. Valparaiso (23-9)