UConn dominates San Diego advancing to the Elite Eight
BOSTON — When San Diego State’s Jaedon LeDee hit a jumper to kick off the scoring Thursday night, the UConn men’s basketball team trailed for the first time since five minutes into the second half of the Big East Tournament championship game nearly two weeks earlier.
When UConn went through a 4-for-22 drought over the latter part of the opening half and San Diego State got to within four at one point, it looked like the Huskies were finally — finally — going to be challenged in an NCAA Tournament game.
Cam Spencer had other ideas. Stephon Castle, too. And don’t forget Hassan Diarra, and ... you get the point.
UConn snapped open a reasonably close game by smothering the Aztecs in the latter half and rolling to an 82-52 victory in a Sweet 16 bout at TD Garden. The top-seeded Huskies will now face No. 3 seed Illinois in an Elite Eight battle on Saturday at 6:09 p.m., also at TD Garden.
The Huskies improved to 34-3, matching the program record for wins in a season. UConn was 34-2 under Jim Calhoun during the 1998-99 campaign, which culminated in the program’s first national title.
“These guys right now are leaving a legacy in a place that’s hard to leave a legacy,” coach Dan Hurley said. “It’s been a historical season in a tough place to make history. They’re galvanized by that. It’s special.”
The Huskies’ win was somewhat of a relay race to the finish line. Alex Karaban hit a pair of 3-pointers and had eight points within the game’s first five minutes, then didn’t score again. Didn’t matter. Spencer grabbed the baton and scored 16 of his team-high 18 points in the opening
half, quelling a pair of mini-droughts with key baskets, including a 3pointer with 21 seconds left in the half that gave UConn a 40-31 lead.
In the latter half, Spencer passed the baton to Castle, a freshman, who engineered a personal 6-2 run midway through the latter half and finished with a triple-double (16 points, 11 rebounds). Diarra then took the baton, scoring seven of the Huskies’ next nine points while providing his usual nagging defense.
Donovan Clingan finished the Aztecs off with a couple of dunks that officially inducted San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher into the “Tired-of-SeeingUConn” Coaches’ Club, along with Rick Pitino and many others.
UConn had defeated Dutcher and the Aztecs in last year’s national championship game in Houston, 76-59. This year’s Huskies may be even better.
“Either better or we’re worse, I don’t know,” the good-natured Dutcher said. “Yeah, they’re good. They’re connected. They’re dangerous. We tried to hang in there. We didn’t play our best game, but that’s a credit to them.”
All the while, Tristen Newton finished with 17 points and seven boards, despite struggling a bit from the floor.
“That’s how special we are, because of the depth
we have,” said Clingan, who wound up with eight points and eight rebounds. “How many guys who can go out and give us 20 a night. Hass was off the bench tonight on fire. He got to the rim, he was a pest on defense, making them fumble the ball. The way he guards and leads as a point guard, he’s got a lot of experience and talent.”
“So many weapons on this team,” added Diarra, who scored all seven of his points during that twominute span in the second half. “It’s so talented and so deep. We just play off one another. We just love to see each other win. I think that’s why we’re playing so well.”
The Huskies owned a dominating 50-29 advantage on the backboards, including 21 offensive rebounds.
“Doing that against that team, who rebounds as hard as they do,” Clingan marveled. “That’s big time.”
Everything about team is big-time.
LeDee, who led the Aztecs in scoring at 21.5 per game, had 15 points at halftime but was limited to just three points on 1-for-8 shooting in the latter.
“He’s one heck of a player,” Clingan said of the 6foot-9, 240-pound forward. “I really feel like, besides the first 1 1/2 minutes, where he didn’t miss a thing, I feel like I did a decent job on defense and this forced him to take the shots we wanted him to take, which was pull-up middies.”
UConn hit 11 of its first 16 shots, including four 3pointers, to jump out to an 11-point lead midway less than 10 minutes into the game. The Huskies went cold after that, however, going just 4-for-22 (1-for-8 from 3) over the latter part of the half.
It was Spencer who quelled a couple of UConn mini-droughts. The Huskies had missed seven straight, nine of 10 and 14 of 16 and the Aztecs were within four (33-29) when Spencer hit a baseline stepback to break the drought.
“Just look around, man, you see a bunch of smiles around the locker room,” Diarra said afterwards. “We’re enjoying this ride, we’re taking it all in. We’re just ready to keep it rolling.”