At the end of the NCAA men’s national championship game Monday night, confetti – strips of blue and maize – rained from the sky at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where Michigan won its first title since 1989.

On this night, there was no blue and red confetti falling; six-time champion UConn lost its first title game in seven tries as Michigan prevailed 69-63.

And head coach Dan Hurley was there to help his disappointed players pick up the pieces.

He hugged Alex Karaban, the winningest player in Huskies history who appeared in his final game. And also Solo Ball, his guard who fought off both foul trouble and a bad foot to score 11 points in 17 minutes. He had hugs for all the players who joined him in the postgame news conference.

“Obviously for us it's tough,” Hurley told reporters after the game about his second-seeded Huskies. “... I'm not real emotional. Players are crying a lot more than I am. It's hard to be upset with your team. We lost the game because we missed. We missed – we didn't make enough shots.”

The Huskies (34-6) fought hard against Michigan, which had manhandled its opposition in the tournament. The Wolverines defeated opponents in the first five tournament games by an average of 21.6 points per game.

Tarris Reed Jr., Solo Ball and Silas Demary Jr. each picked up two fouls in the first half defending the physical Wolverines (37-3), but Jaylin Stewart, Malachi Smith and Jayden Ross played productive minutes in place of the guards. UConn held a 25-23 lead at the 4:30 mark of the first half, but Michigan went on a 10-4 run to take a 33-27 lead at the half.

“I just thought the guys picking up two fouls in the first half, losing those three guys when we, I thought, had a great chance of going to the locker room with the lead, really put us in a bad spot, Hurley said.

“You know, it's hard to be disappointed in your team when they fight so hard.”

Michigan, a No. 1 seed, was aggressive coming out of the locker room after halftime, building a 48-37 lead at the 12:56 mark as the foul trouble continued for Ball, Reed and Demary.

And just as UConn toiled methodically to pare a 19-point Duke lead in the Sweet 16, the Huskies kept working. They’d make a run, only to see Michigan restore its lead, but UConn was in business at six points down after Karaban made the score 62-56 with 2:30 remaining.

On the next play, Michigan’s Roddy Gayle Jr. mishandled the ball near midcourt and Reed stole it. Heading down the court with Ball, Reed fed him the ball and the guard missed a layup. Morez Johnson Jr. got the rebound and found Trey McKenney for a stepback 3-pointer to balloon the lead to 65-56.

A turnover by Yaxel Lendenborg led to a 3-pointer by Ball, putting UConn within four at 67-63 with 37 seconds remaining, but not enough time remained for the Huskies.

Almost everything went right with the Huskies’ game plan.

They limited Michigan, which entered the game averaging 87.8 points per game, to 69 points. They held the Wolverines – fourth in the nation in shooting percentage at 51% -to 38.2% (21 of 55). They battled the much bigger Michigan front line on the boards, pulling down 46 rebounds (24 defensive, 22 offensive) compared to 39 for the Wolverines, under their season average.

The difference, of course, was in UConn’s shooting. The Huskies averaged 47.8% shooting on the season and were held to 30.9% (21 of 68, including 9 of 33 from 3-point range).

Braylon Mullins, whose last-second shot from long distance against No. 1 overall seed Duke in the Sweet 16 kept UConn alive in the tournament, couldn’t get free from a persistent defense most of the night, making just 4 of 17 shots (3 of 10 from 3-point territory).

The difference also wound up being at the foul line, where Michigan made 25 of 28 shots with UConn called for 22 fouls.

The Huskies were 12 of 16 from the line, but Michigan was whistled just 13 times.

The reason for the loss was simple, Hurley said.

“Literally, it just came down to we just didn't make enough shots in the basket,” he said. “To be able to keep that team under 40 percent from the field, 38 percent, this team has destroyed everyone they've faced in this tournament. Again, your team gives you 22 offensive rebounds; that's how hard we played.

“Just what the group has able to overcome just throughout the year, the growth, the way they played in March, just the whole experience that this team has given the coaches, the fan base, to play to the last – to be one of the last two teams standing – a lot of people talk about you're better off losing in the first game in the Final Four than losing in the championship, that is the biggest bunch of crap of all – it is such a bull –"

It was the final game of the spectacular UConn career of Karaban, who returned to the Huskies this season on a mission to win a third NCAA championship in four seasons. Karaban led the Huskies with 17 points and added 11 rebounds and two steals, playing all 40 minutes.

Reed also had a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds, and Mullins scored 11 points, despite the rough shooting night, to go with seven rebounds and two assists.

Ross, Stewart and Smith combined to score only nine points, but they were all over the court on defense. They combined for nine rebounds, and Smith had three assists in place of Demary, who fouled out in the final minutes.

Michigan was led by Elliott Cadeau, who had 19 points, three rebounds and two assists. Yaxel Lendeborg had 13 points and Morez Johnson Jr. added 12 points to go with his team-high 10 rebounds.

Cadeau was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. He was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Johnson and Aday Mara, as well as Reed and Karaban.

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