UConn puts Final Four beatdown on Miami 72-59

HOUSTON (AP)— Nobody was guarding UConn’s best player. So Adama Sanogo spun theball to get his fingers just right, set his feet behind the 3-pointline and splashed in the shot. Then, less than a minute later, hedid it again.

It was asmuch basketball clinic as highlight video — and all of it perfectlyfitting for the Huskies, who are methodically steamrolling througha March Madness bracket that has been a free-for-all everywhereelse.

UConn doledout another drama-free beatdown Saturday, getting 21 points and 10rebounds from Sanogo to dispatch Miami 72-59 and move one win fromthe school’s fifth national title.

“There’s alot of teams that want to play Monday,” Sanogo said. “It means alot to us.”

JordanHawkins overcame his stomach bug and scored 13 for the Huskies, whocame into thismost unexpected Final Fouras the only teamwith any experience on college basketball’s final weekend and withthe best seeding of the four teams in Houston — at No. 4.

Againstfifth-seeded Miami, they were the best team on the court frombeginning to end. Starting with three straight 3s — one jumper fromHawkins and two of those set shots from Sanogo — UConn took a quick9-0 lead and never trailed.

“This issomething that I worked on all summer, especially shooting,” Sanogosaid.

On Monday inthe title game, the Huskies will face San Diego State, which becamethe first team to hit a buzzer-beater while trailing in a FinalFour gamefor a 72-71 victoryoverFlorida Atlantic.UConn was an early 7 1/2-point favorite,according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

“They’re oneof the best teams in the country,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said ofthe Aztecs. “And I think it’s fitting that both of us kind ofearned our way into this title game.”

But while theearly game was an all-timer, the nightcap was simply more of thesame from the Huskies (30-8).

The 13-pointwin was UConn’s closest since the brackets came out. The Huskiesare the sixth team since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in1985 to reach the title game with five straight double-digitvictories. It’san impressivelistof behemoths with a knack for closing: Four of thefirst five went on to win the championship.

Some thoughtMiami (29-8), with the nation’s fifth-ranked offense and fourplayers who have scored 20 points at least three times this season,might be the team to slow this Huskies juggernaut. Not to be.

Isaiah Wongled the ’Canes with 15 points on 4-for-10 shooting. Harassedconstantly by Sanogo, 7-foot-2 Donovan Clingan and the rest ofConnecticut’s long-armed, rangy perimeter players, Miami, whichcame in with the nation’s fifth-best offense, shot 25% in the firsthalf and 33.3% for the game.

“Obviouslywhat we tried to do not only didn’t work, I couldn’t even recognizeit,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “Offensively we were out ofsync, but defensively we were too.”

Not thatUConn was all boring. The Huskies enjoyed their own sort ofbuzzer-beater in the form of a 3 from Alex Karaban that sent theHuskies jogging into the locker room with a 13-point lead athalftime.

They built itto 20 before the first TV timeout of the second half. By then, JimNantz, calling his last Final Four, could start saving his voicefor Monday.

Miami did getit under double digits a few times, but this never gotinteresting.

Not helping:Hurricanes guardNijel Packmissed aboutfive minutes after managers had trouble locating a substitute for abusted shoe. Pack finished with eight points, and Jordan Miller,who hit all 20 shots he took from the floor and the line in Miami’sElite Eight win, went 4 for 10 for 11 points. Only one Miami playermade more than half his shots.

“I’m adefensive guy first and foremost,” Hurley said. “I just love theway we guarded them. They’re one of the best offenses in thecountry, and we really disrupted them.”

UConn hadfive blocks, including two from Sanogo, and 19 assists, led byeight from Tristen Newton — both signs of the sort of all-aroundeffort the Huskies have been putting in since the start ofFebruary, when they began the bounce back from asix-loss-in-eight-games stretch that halted their momentum.

That coldstretch is a big reason they were seeded only fourth for March.Now, it’s April and the number UConn is thinking about is “5” — asin, a fifth title that will come if it can keep this up for onemore game.

“Maybe it wasa little bit delusional,” Huskies guard Andre Jackson Jr. said,“but we always knew we were the best team in our mind.”