6:50 left in the first half and we are tied at 23. It is the Zach Edey show. The two-time NCAA Player of the Year has scored 14 of Purdue’s 23 points. UConn is now a 5.5-point favorite, and the game total is now 145.5 points.

When Clingan is out of the game, UConn has featured Samson Johnson as the key defender on Purdue’s 7-foot-4 center, Edey. Johnson has struggled — he’s got two fouls and had to sit immediately after he recorded his second personal. 

With 10 minutes left in the first 20-minute half, UConn leads Purdue by three, 21-18.

UConn’s Cam Spencer and Hassan Diarra were scoring leaders for UConn, and Purdue center Zach Edey leads in scoring for the Boilermakers.

UConn has outscored opponents by a combined 125 points in the NCAA Tournament, and Purdue is plus-98 in its five games. The combined 223 points is the highest combined scoring margin between two finalists in NCAA Tournament history.

That will put a premium on defending.

UConn might have an advantage there.

The Huskies are No. 4 in KenPom.com’s defensive efficiency ratings, and they locked down late in the game to knock high-scoring Alabama out of the Final Four.

Purdue isn’t shabby on D, either, ranked 12th by KenPom.

Just seven minutes into the title game, the battle of the bigs is making good on its promise. Edey just recorded back-to-back blocks to stymie a UConn possession, following an earlier block from UConn center Clingan. Edey also leads his team with 11 points. 

While No. 1-seeded Purdue fights for its first NCAA basketball title in history, last year it was a starkly different tale.

In the 2023 tournament, Purdue, also then a No. 1 seed, was bounced out in the first round by Fairleigh Dickinson University, 58-63, in a stunning upset.

The Associated Press in its coverage wrote that “Fairleigh Dickinson brought down a giant” and called it one of the biggest upsets in the history of the NCAA Tournament.

Purdue senior Mason Gillis said earlier in this year’s tournament that the team remembers the early exit.

“We take it in and talk about it rather than ignoring it and let it fuel us,” Gillis said two weeks ago, the Lafayette Journal & Courier in Indiana reported.

15:04 remaining in the first half. The Huskies lead 11-9 over the Boilermakers. UConn remains a 6.5-point favorite. The game total is climbing and is up to 147.5 points

Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn scores first with a 2-point jumper.

Purdue got the tipoff at 9:22 p.m. ET (6:22 p.m. in Arizona, where the game is being played), but Zach Edey missed a shot and there was a turnover.

Purdue got a defensive rebound on a missed 3-pointer by UConn’s Alex Karaban, setting the stage for the first score by Purdue.

Matt Painter, Purdue's head coach since 2005, is making his first appearance in a national title game. For many, Painter's arrival here has been a long time coming. Coming into the tournament, Painter's name was most frequently mentioned by his peers as to which coach was the best who had never made it to a Final Four.

But perhaps more important to Painter, now that he's here, is what team he led to the Final Four, and tonight's championship game. He's doing it at his alma mater.

Painter played four solid seasons with the Boilermakers from 1989 to 1993, culminating in a senior season in which he averaged 8.6 points and 4.5 assists per game. Though Purdue never made much noise in the NCAA Tournament when Painter was a player, he has now spent 20 seasons at the helm of the Boilermakers' ship, getting to five Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight before he helped guide Purdue to the title game this year.