Adama Sanogo scored 24 factors and Jordan Hawkins delivered from the 3-point line within the second half as UConn pulled away from Saint Mary’s for a 70-55 win on Sunday that put the Huskies within the Candy 16 for the primary time in 9 years.
No. Four seed UConn (27-8) superior to the West Regional in Las Vegas on Thursday. Subsequent up is eighth-seeded Arkansas, which knocked off No. 1 seed Kansas.
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Sanogo adopted up his 28-point recreation within the Huskies’ NCAA tourney opener towards Iona with one other highly effective and environment friendly efficiency within the paint. The 245-pound junior was 11 for 16 from the ground and grabbed eight rebounds, dominating a big-man matchup with Mitchell Saxen (six factors, three rebounds and 4 fouls).
Saint Mary’s (27-8) of the West Coast Convention did not get out of the primary weekend of the event for the second straight season as a No. 5 seed.
Aidan Mahaney and Logan Johnson every scored 9 for the Gaels, who performed the ultimate 25 minutes with out third-leading scorer Alex Ducas. The senior left with an obvious again harm.
UConn used a 14-2 spurt, highlighted by a Three from Hawkins with 11:28 left within the second half, to go up 51-40.
Hawkins had been scoreless to that time, however he added one other Three coming off a display moments later to make it 56-45, and the “Let’s Go Huskies!” chants began to reverberate all through MVP Area.
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Hawkins wasn’t achieved, making back-to-back 3s to make it 62-47 with 6:38 left. He completed with 12 factors.
In the meantime, the Huskies protection was clamping down on the Gaels, who have been held underneath 60 factors for simply the fourth time this season.
The Gaels and Huskies performed a virtually even first half, with each capturing 44.4% from the sphere, and shutting robust. Mahaney made a Three with 21 second left to place Saint Mary’s up 30-28 and Newton responded with a 3-pointer 18 seconds later that put the Huskies up 31-30 at half and introduced the pro-UConn crowd to its toes.
BIG PICTURE
Saint Mary’s: The Gaels have reached the Candy 16 simply as soon as in program historical past in 2010.
Coach Randy Bennett, in his 22nd season at SMC, and the Gaels have been Gonzaga’s closest rival within the WCC. They snagged No. 5 seeds every of the final two seasons, the perfect seeding for any workforce outdoors the six energy conferences not named Gonzaga since 2014.
UConn: The Huskies final performed within the second weekend of the event in 2014, after they received the final — and most shocking — of 4 nationwide titles in a 15-year span.
The Huskies’ final title run got here out of the American Athletic Convention, the league birthed from the Large East’s football-basketball breakup in 2013.
UConn went with the soccer faculties and performed seven years within the AAC, the place its soccer program floundered whereas its vaunted males’s basketball slipped into irrelevance.
The Huskies returned to their Large East roots, hiring former Seton Corridor level guard Dan Hurley as coach 5 years in the past and rejoining the convention three seasons in the past, they usually have been on the rise ever since.
BIG LOSS
Ducas was helped off the court docket with 4:52 left within the first half.
The workforce’s most correct 3-point shooter and third-leading scorer went right down to his knees and began reaching for his decrease again after no obvious contact. He was attended to by the workforce’s athletic trainers after which assisted off the court docket after making an attempt to take a step on his personal. He went proper to the locker room and didn’t play the remainder of the sport.
Ducas scored 17 factors within the Gaels’ first-round victory towards VCU and had eight extra when he went out.
UP NEXT
UConn: The Huskies are 3-1 all-time towards Arkansas.
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