Albany, NY—The UConn men’s basketball has seven wins in its last eight games and are hoping they will make it nine against # 5 seed St. Mary’s at MVP Arena in Albany, New York.
The Huskies have been successful against teams in the West Coast Conference with an 11-4 combined record against those teams. UConn is 3-2 vs Gonzaga, 1-0 vs Saint Mary’s, 0-1 vs Santa Clara, 1-0 vs Loyola Marymount, 1-0 vs BYU, 1-0 vs. Portland, 0-1 vs San Diego, and 4-0 vs. Pepperdine.
This is the first in the Gaels’ history that St. Mary’s have won NCAA Tournament games in consecutive seasons. But their short lived success would come to an end.
Adama Sanogo scored 24 points to lead #5 UConn Huskies pass (27-8) #5 St. Mary’s (27-8) 70-55 at the MVP Arena in Albany, New York in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
With the victory tonight, the Huskies advances to the Sweet 16 round and who knows after that.
In the first half, the Huskies started slow and was down early 17-9 at the 12:35 mark with Alex Ducas lighting it up from the perimeter and had 8 points at that point but the left game at the 4:52 mark with a unspecified injury headed straight to the locker room.
UConn settled down and was able get Sanogo going early, he scored six points and cut the lead to 19-8 at the 7:24 mark.
In the first half, the game went back and forth, Tristen Newton hit a long three for the Huskies and put them up by one going to the break (31-30).
In the first half, the Gaels shot 44.4% (12-27) from the field and 50% (3-6) from beyond the arc. St. Mary’s hot shooting from the perimeter kept the game close in the half.
Sanogo led all scorers at half with 10 points in the paint.
In the second half, the Huskies ran their offense through Sanogo—-when the Gaels collapsed on him, he kicked the ball out to Alex Karaban and he hit a deep three on the left wing to put the Huskies up by eight 48-40 at the 11:57 mark.
The Huskies used a 14-2 spurt, accentuated by a long three from Jordan Hawkins with 11:28 left in the second half, to go up 51-40 and never looked back after that.
Mitchell Saxen and Aidan Mahaney both poured in 9 points for the Gaels.