Vegas bound

UConn punches Sweet 16 ticket and matchup against Arkansas

ALBANY, N.Y. — Jordan Hawkins was scoreless, and the UConn men’s basketball team was locked in another onepossession NCAA Tournament game at halftime on Sunday.

In other words, the Huskies had Saint Mary’s just where they wanted them.

A second straight second-half explosion, once again engineered by a dominant Adama Sanogo and a resurgent Hawkins, led UConn to a 70-55 win over the Gaels in a secondround NCAA tourney game before a largely proHuskies crowd at MVP Arena.

UConn booked a ticket to its first Sweet 16 since 2014, when the Huskies ultimately went on to win their fourth championship. The fourth-seeded Huskies will face eighthseeded Arkansas in the West Regional semifinals on Thursday in Las Vegas.

“After the last couple of years, to be able to get past that first round and make it to the Sweet 16, it feels awesome,” junior Andre Jackson Jr. said. “I can’t wait to take the floor again with these guys and face Arkansas.”

Sanogo finished with 24 points on 11-for-16 shooting and eight rebounds. Like Iona (ironically, also called the Gaels) two nights earlier, Saint Mary’s simply had no answer for the 6-foot-9, 240pound Sanogo, letting him go one-on-one with center Mitchell Saxen most of the night.

“I mean, a guy that size, with his touch around the rim, it’s got to be a multiple-man cover,” Saint Mary’s forward Kyle Bowen said. “We probably should have supported our bigs a little more, which I think we’ve done on some of the best bigs in the country all year.”

“Going into the game, I was thinking for us to win I have to be at my best,” Sanogo said. “That’s why I was ready to do something positive, if it was scoring or something else. But for us to win, I had to be at my best.”

Sanogo had 28 points and 13 rebounds in the Huskies’ first-round win over Iona. This was his 11th 20-point game of the season.

Then there was Hawkins. Just like against Iona, the sophomore guard was scoreless at halftime, this time taking just one shot before picking up his

Patrick Smith/Getty Images UConn’s Joey Calcaterra reacts in the first half against St. Mary’s during the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.