Huskies’ charge led by Okafor

SAN ANTONIO — In the first half, Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun would not take any chances with his star, Emeka Okafor.

In the second half, the 6-foot-10 junior center demonstrated the soundness of the move. He also showed why he is the best big man in college basketball, if not the best player, period.

Benched by Calhoun for most of the first half with two fouls, Okafor returned with a fury after halftime, scoring all 18 of his points. He added seven rebounds and two blocks and altered several shots as the Huskies erased an eight-point deficit in the final minutes and beat Duke 79-78 in the NCAA tournament national semifinals last night at the Alamodome.

“I had kind of a frustrated first half,” Okafor said. “My teammates told me the second half would be the time to dominate.”

Okafor dutifully complied as UConn, which beat Duke in the 1999 championship game, prevented an all-ACC title extravaganza. The Huskies (32-6) will play Georgia Tech for the title tomorrow night.

Duke led 75-67 with 3:28 to go before UConn went on a 12-0 run. Okafor’s putback of his own miss gave the Huskies a 76-75 lead with 25.9 seconds left, and they held on.

“With us trailing by eight, our champion’s heart arose,” Calhoun said. “We made six straight stops. We played incredible defense. We made big plays at the other end. I couldn’t be more proud.”

Okafor, a unanimous All-American and the Big East Player of the Year, picked up his second foul with 16:05 left in the first half, went to the bench and stayed there. “It was eating me up inside,” he said.

UConn nevertheless went on an 8-1 run for a 15-4 lead, but Duke eventually took advantage of Okafor’s absence and built a 10-point lead. UConn cut it to seven before halftime. but Duke went ahead by 11 early in the second half.

The Huskies, who got 18 points from guard Ben Gordon, had 11 turnovers in the first half and 18 in the game, seven by point guard Taliek Brown. But UConn shot 62.5 percent in the second half after hitting just 39.3 in the first.

Duke (31-6), led by freshman Luol Deng’s 16 points, made 14 of 23 free throws and six of 22 3-point attempts.

Okafor returned to start the second half and just as quickly came out again after picking up his third foul with 16:06 to go. This time, he didn’t sit long, re-entering after just 1:43.

Duke, meanwhile, continued to attack the basket even with Okafor in the game as the lead kept bouncing between four and six points. But that changed when J.J. Redick’s 3-pointer put Duke up by nine with 10:50 remaining.

Okafor then again proved why he has earned so many accolades. Blocking and altering shots on defense, scoring in the paint on offense, he keyed an 8-0 UConn run that cut the Duke lead to 59-58 with 9:20 left.

Duke twice went up by three, and twice UConn answered. Then the Blue Devils created some space on Daniel Ewing’s drive to the basket, a 3-pointer by Redick and Chris Duhon’s drive that made the lead 70-62 with 5:22 left.

A pair of free-throws trimmed the lead to six, but Ewing hit a 3-pointer for a nine-point Duke advantage with 4:43 to go. Rashad Anderson answered with a 3-pointer of his own and two free-throws, but the Blue Devils appeared to be in control.

Appearances often deceive.