Sanogo, UConn pull away from Saint Mary’s, into Sweet 16

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Adama Sanogo scored 24points and Jordan Hawkins delivered from the 3-point line in thesecond half as UConn pulled away from Saint Mary’s for a 70-55 winon Sunday that put the Huskies in the Sweet 16 for the first timein nine years.

No. 4 seed UConn (27-8) advanced to the West Regional in LasVegas on Thursday. Next up is eighth-seeded Arkansas, which knockedoff No. 1 seed Kansas.

Sanogo followed up his 28-point game in the Huskies’ NCAAtourney opener against Iona with another powerful and efficientperformance in the paint. The 245-pound junior was 11 for 16 fromthe floor and grabbed eight rebounds, dominating a big-man matchupwith Mitchell Saxen (six points, three rebounds and fourfouls).

Saint Mary’s (27-8) of the West Coast Conference failed to getout of the first weekend of the tournament for the second straightseason as a No. 5 seed.

Aidan Mahaney and Logan Johnson each scored nine for the Gaels,who played the final 25 minutes without third-leading scorer AlexDucas. The senior left with an apparent back injury.

UConn used a 14-2 spurt, highlighted by a 3 from Hawkins with11:28 left in the second half, to go up 51-40.

Hawkins had been scoreless to that point, but he added another 3coming off a screen moments later to make it 56-45, and the “Let’sGo Huskies!” chants started to reverberate throughout MVPArena.

Hawkins wasn’t done, making back-to-back 3s to make it 62-47with 6:38 left. He finished with 12 points.

Meanwhile, the Huskies defense was clamping down on the Gaels,who were held under 60 points for just the fourth time thisseason.

The Gaels and Huskies played a practically even first half, withboth shooting 44.4% from the field, and closing strong. Mahaneymade a 3 with 21 second left to put Saint Mary’s up 30-28 andNewton responded with a 3-pointer 18 seconds later that put theHuskies up 31-30 at half and brought the pro-UConn crowd to itsfeet.

BIG PICTURE

Saint Mary’s: The Gaels have reached the Sweet 16 just once inprogram history in 2010.

Coach Randy Bennett, in his 22nd season at SMC, and the Gaelshave been Gonzaga’s closest rival in the WCC. They snagged No. 5seeds each of the last two seasons, the best seeding for any teamoutside the six power conferences not named Gonzaga since 2014.

UConn: The Huskies last played in the second weekend of thetournament in 2014, when they won the last — and most surprising —of four national titles in a 15-year span.

The Huskies’ last title run came out of the American AthleticConference, the league birthed from the Big East’sfootball-basketball breakup in 2013.

UConn went with the football schools and played seven years inthe AAC, where its football program floundered while its vauntedmen’s basketball slipped into irrelevance.

The Huskies returned to their Big East roots, hiring formerSeton Hall point guard Dan Hurley as coach five years ago andrejoining the conference three seasons ago, and they have been onthe rise ever since.

BIG LOSS

Ducas was helped off the court with 4:52 left in the firsthalf.

The team’s most accurate 3-point shooter and third-leadingscorer went down to his knees and started reaching for his lowerback after no apparent contact. He was attended to by the team’sathletic trainers and then assisted off the court after trying totake a step on his own. He went right to the locker room and didnot play the rest of the game.

Ducas scored 17 points in the Gaels’ first-round victory againstVCU and had eight more when he went out.

UP NEXT

UConn: The Huskies are 3-1 all-time against Arkansas.