Sweet Sixteen East Bracket Recap

In the East bracket San Diego State, UConn, Illinois, and Iowa State remained to start off Thursday’s Sweet Sixteen matchups. The one-seeded UConn matched up with five-seeded San Diego State. To begin the game UConn was down 2-0 this was the first time the entire tournament so far that they have been down at any point. Yet, after the first minute, it was more of the same for the talented UConn Squad. UConn got contributions from players at all positions. Most importantly Stephon Castle recorded a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

They were able to dominate in almost every category showing that even against good teams like San Diego State they can dismantle their opponents. San Diego State featured Jaedon LeDee who up until this game had been one of the stars of the tournament. After scoring almost 25 points a game to start the tournament he was held to only 18 on less than 50% from the floor. The ability of UConn to stop LeDee is scary for any team who steps in the way on their path to another championship. 

The second game of the night was much closer and featured an immense comeback effort by Iowa State. Curtis Jones and Terrence Shannon battled all night both putting up over 25 points, this created exciting plays all throughout in a game that seemed like it was maybe going to be a blowout at first. Even after a 10-point lead at half Illinois struggled to pull away, as Iowa State seemed to have a counter for every punch thrown at them. Iowa State was able to score 43 points in the second half and really give Illinois a scare in a 72-69 game. Illinois has had an impressive tournament so far but now will be put to the real test.  In the Elite Eight, the one-seeded UConn will play the three-seed Illinois after both of Thursday’s games. It will be interesting to see the matchup of Marcus Domask and Donavan Clingman as the big men could really determine the outcome of this game. This Saturday will definitely be a gem.