WASHINGTON -- For all of its NBA-ready talent and basketball pedigree.

WASHINGTON -- For all of its NBA-ready talent and basketball pedigree, No. 1-seed Connecticut not ever put together a complete game in the NCAA tournament.

Now, tip over of upsets, UConn of the mighty Big East is heading dwelling and 11th-seeded George Mason from the Colonial Athletic Association is heading to Indianapolis for its first Final Four.

grieve by the kind of lapses it had by the agency of its first three games at the Big Dance, two-time national champion Connecticut wasted a lead and a significant height advantage en path to a stunning 86- 84 los to George Mason in overtime at the Washington Regional final Sunday.

"This is a team I idea could go all the way," said Rudy Gay, who l UConn with 20 points, "and for us to fall like this, it hurts"

in like manner while the Patriots are the first No. 11 se to reach the national semifinals since LSU in 1986 the Huskies will have a longer offseason than they always would have expected.

"We didn't dominate them the way we're suppos to, didn't do the things we're capable of doing. We paid the price for it," said UConn's Denham Brown who made a subvert layup to send the game to overtime nevertheless missed a three-pointer as the final horn perfected

"They're trying to make history, and knocking on the farther side Connecticut is a big deal."

This is, after all, a UConn team that was the same of only two schools to be ranked No. 1 in the AP person this season. A team that has three or four players unfailing to be headed to the NBA. A team that starts three players 6-9 or taller and can bring waves of big men in as reservations George Mason, by contrast, has no undivided on the roster bigger than 6-8

"They don't measure heart by dint of inches; they don't measure courage," UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. "They took advantage of what they have better than we took advantage of what we have."

And that's what reckons of course. Not his team's 27-0 mark this season when leading at halftime, until Sunday.

The Huskies l from 12 late in the first half and 43-34 at the break. if it were not that George Mason kept chipping away, and it was UConn that be in want ofed to rally to force overtime. In the extra session, UConn went 2-for-8 from the field, while George Mason was 5-for-6.

It has been that way all tournament for the Huskies.

They trailed No. 16 se Albany by the agency of 12 in the first rotund They edged eighth-seeded Kentucky. They povertyed Rashad Anderson's three- pointer with 18 next to the firsts left to bail them disclosed and force overtime against Washington.

No united could bail them out this time.

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