The first half of the UConn basketball showdown against Purdue in the National Championship Game was electrifying. It was a back-and-forth affair to kick things off, but Zach Edey was a huge problem for UConn. Dan Hurley's team ran into foul trouble early on as nobody was able to contain Edey.

With six minutes to go, UConn already had six fouls and had two players with two fouls each. Of course, Hurley was frustrated and hurled an NSFW message to one of the officials (h/t Brendan Marks of The Athletic).

‘Hurley to referee Roger Ayers after Edey stonewalled Stephon Castle on that last screen, and no foul was called: “Yo, what the f*** is that?”‘

Earlier in the half, Hurley was seen arguing with the officials and he has been clearly frustrated with the officiating at the start of the contest.

The foul discussion on Zach Edey has been a recurring theme all season long, and now Hurley has experienced that firsthand early on.

After the sequence, the two engaged and exchanged words with each other, per Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated.

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‘Hurley came onto the court complaining that Edey set an illegal screen as Edey walked by. Edey said something to Hurley. Hurley returned fire. This game is running hot.'

Here is a video of the altercation between the two and the play in discussion, which is certainly worth a look.

Edey was everywhere to start the game off and was giving Hurley and the UConn team a headache. Prior to the game, Edey spoke on the talented matchup of bigs with himself and Donovan Clingan, but Edey was clearly the better player early on. The talented center was a matchup nightmare for UConn to start the game, and the atmosphere in Phoenix was exciting by all means.

Dan Hurley is always animated like that on the sideline and let his feelings be known early on with the way the game was being called against his team.  Yet, despite Edey's sensational 16-point first half, UConn went into the break with a 36-30 lead as the Huskies aim to repeat as national champions. Hurley seemed happy with the way his time has played up until that point, as he mentioned during his interview with Tracy Wolfson (h/t Charlie Parent).

“I really like the pace of the game. The pace right now probably favors us. I think we're forcing them to play faster than they're used to.”