By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – George Mason is no longer the cute little underdog. The Patriots, by golly, are going to the Final Four.

The suburban commuter school from Fairfax, Va., beat top-seeded Connecticut 86-84 in overtime Sunday in the Washington Regional final, ending the stranglehold that big-time programs have enjoyed for 27 years in college basketball’s biggest showcase.

They lacked in size, athleticism and history relative to their opponent, but the 11th-seeded Patriots made up for it with tenacity.

Buoyed by a partisan crowd and playing some 20 miles from their campus, George Mason rallied after trailing by 12 late in the first half and nine early in the second.

They hit six straight 3-pointers in the second half, shot 5-for-6 in overtime and outrebounded UConn 37-34 even though the Huskies have three starters taller than any of the Patriots’ frontcourt players.

The Patriots became the second double-digit seed to make the Final Four, matching LSU’s run, also as an 11th seed, in 1986. The Colonial Athletic Association team is the first true outsider to crash the Final Four since Penn and Indiana State both got there in 1979. The Patriots, whose at-large selection was roundly criticized, celebrated after the final horn by standing on the press row table and waving their shirts to their fans.

Patriots guard Tony Skinn said coach Jim Larranaga fired up his players by telling them that UConn’s players didn’t even know which conference George Mason is in.

“That’s a little bit of disrespect,” Skinn said. “Coach told us the CAA stands for Connecticut Assassin Association.”‘

Larranaga led one of the school’s familiar chants, yelling “George!” to the crowd’s “Mason!” as he waited his turn to cut down the net.

Then he climbed the ladder and worked the scissors with a smile, then waved the net high in the air to more cheers before slipping the nylon around his neck.

“I feel so good, through my own sadness, for Jim Larranaga,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. “Playing at that level is not easy. I can only imagine the feeling they must have on that campus, in that locker room. … It’s something they probably never imagined. We’ve imagined it, and we’ve done it. They could never have imagined it.”

All five Mason starters finished in double figures. Jai Lewis had 20, and Lamar Butler and Will Thomas each scored 19.

Larranaga’s team kept the same five players in the game from the 10:37 mark of regulation to the very end of overtime. Butler was chosen as the most outstanding player of the regional, and he and his father were in tears as they hugged at length on the court after the game.

George Mason (27-7), having by far the best season in school history, had never won an NCAA tournament game until it beat half of last year’s Final Four – Michigan State and No. 3 seed North Carolina – back-to-back in the first two rounds. Now it can say it has beaten the last two national champions – Connecticut and North Carolina.

Rudy Gay scored 20, and Jeff Adrien had a career-high 17 points for Connecticut (30-4), which never could put together a complete game in the tournament. The Huskies had to rally from double-digit second-half deficits to beat Albany and Washington and barely held off Kentucky.

Florida 75, Villanova 62

MINNEAPOLIS – Joakim Noah and the rest of Florida’s sophomores were simply too strong for the last No. 1 seed standing.

With a 75-62 win over top-seeded Villanova in the Minneapolis Regional on Sunday, the young Gators are going to the Final Four a lot sooner than anyone would have thought.

Noah had 21 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks to lead the third-seeded Gators. Fellow sophomore Al Horford added 12 points and 15 rebounds and Taurean Green scored 19 points for the young Gators (31-6), who will play No. 11 seed George Mason next Saturday in the national semifinals in Indianapolis.

This marks the first time since the field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985 that no top-seeded team advanced to the Final Four, and the second time in tournament history.

Villanova star Randy Foye fouled out with 28.9 seconds left and walked slowly to the bench to hug his coaches and teammates with tears streaming down his face. He carried the Wildcats (28-5) for the second time in three days, without any help from fellow senior Allan Ray.

Foye had 25 points. Ray scored 11 points, on 5-for-19 shooting.

This was Florida’s eighth straight trip to the NCAA tournament under coach Billy Donovan, but so many of his previous teams – minus the national runner-up in 2000 – failed to fulfill their potential in the postseason.

This tight group of sophomores, led by the fiery, ponytailed Noah, vowed to change that, when they bonded during their first few weeks on campus. Despite a second-round loss in the tournament last year to Villanova, the Gators are a nation-best 15-1 in March over the last two years.

AP-ES-03-26-06 2000EST