Sanogo carries load in win over BU

STORRS — Adama Sanogo looks around and all his former running mates have either graduated or are on the bench in civilian clothes.

Tyrese Martin, R.J. Cole, Isaiah Whaley and Tyler Polley are all playing professionally. Jordan Hawkins (concussion), Andre Jackson Jr. (finger) and Samson Johnson (foot) are currently injured.

That’s 60-percent of the Huskies’ starting lineup, from both last season and from the Huskies’ season-opening win over Stonehill on Monday. Sanogo is the lone stalwart, and he stood head and shoulders above the rest on Friday night.

The 6-foot-9 junior had a doubledouble by halftime, knocked down the first two 3-pointers of his career and finished with 27 points and 15 rebounds to lead the UConn men’s basketball team to an 86-57 win over Boston University at Gampel Pavilion.

“If Adama doesn’t play a game like that, especially to start, that’s a much different type of game,” coach Dan Hurley noted. “He played like an All-American. And that’s what we’re going to need from him, until we get healthy, and if we want to have the best version of the team that we’ve had since I’ve been here.”

Sanogo scored the game’s first four points, missed a 3-pointer but later hit one a little over eight minutes into the game for the first trey of his career, giving UConn a 20-2 lead.

He added his second trey with 21 seconds left in the half to put the Huskies up 40-23 at the break. In between, Sanogo had 17 points and 11 rebounds as the Terriers simply had no answer for him over the first 20 minutes.

“Coach came to me and said we were down a couple of guys, so I needed to step up a little bit,” Sanogo said. “I needed to be there for the team today. That’s why, in the beginning of the game, I didn’t waste any time.”

Sanogo had only attempted one 3-pointer in his career before going 2-for-3 from distance on Friday night.

“I shoot them in practice, so (Hurley) said I need to take that shot if it’s open,” Sanogo said. “If they don’t close out, I need to take that shot. He said I needed to be confident, I know I can make it. In practice, he encouraged me to shoot it. That’s something I want to do, so I work on it all the time. So, it felt good to make the shots in a game.”

BU coach Joe Jones was an assistant at Villanova for six years back in the late 90s/early 2000s.

“He’s as good as any post player that we faced back in my day,” Jones said of Sanogo, who finished 12-for-15 from the floor. “Now that he can make some jumpers, he’s even harder to guard.”

Essentially, it was Adama & the New Kids. The Huskies had little letdown when Sanogo went to the bench, with 7-foot-2 freshman Donovan Clingan, who hadn’t been feeling well prior to the game, posting 10 points, seven rebounds and a pair of blocks.

“It doesn’t hurt that they bring the big fella off the bench, either,” Jones added. “He changes the game, too. You don’t get a breath. He presents different issues, as well.”

Fellow frosh Alex Karaban hit double figures (10 points) for the second straight game, while transfers Nahiem Alleyne (11 points), Hassan Diarra (six assists), Tristen Newton (11 points) and Joey Calcaterra contributed in different ways.

And then there was Richie Springs, the only UConn player who played at all last season and dressed on Friday night. Springs, who had played a mere 41 total minutes over his first three seasons in Storrs, played careerhigh nine minutes in the first half alone, scoring five points and hitting Sanogo for a pair of high-low passes for assists.

He was relegated to garbage time in the latter half, but certainly showed Hurley he’s capable of contributing.

“I’m proud of Richie today,” Hurley said. “We were kind of blindsided by the Samson injury. It kind of came out of nowhere, really (Thursday), where it went from not much of a thing to a major thing. We didn’t have much time to really get Richie mentally ready to go, but he did some good things. He can give us some minutes here and help us hold it down until we get healthier. And also prove that he’s a good player.”

The opening half was nothing short of total UConn domination. The Huskies jumped out to an 11-0 start and led 20-2 before BU scored its first field goal, a Fletcher Tynen fallaway with 10:25 left in the half.

BU got to within 12 (35-23) and Hurley called timeout. Sanogo scored the final five points of the half on an inside hoop (from Springs) and a 3-pointer.

RIM RATTLINGS

Samson Johnson is out indefinitely with a right foot injury

It was announced prior to the game that Johnson, the sophomore forward, suffered it at some point in Monday’s win over Stonehill. Johnson, who started and scored seven points in that game, will be monitored by UConn’s medical and training staff and his condition will be re-evaluated next week. Hurley said after the game that the concern is Johnson could be out for “weeks ... maybe longer.”

New Haven’s Walter Whyte, who started and scored six points as a freshman the last time BU played UConn on Nov. 18, 2017, led the Terriers on Friday with 19 points. Whyte, a 6-6 wing, had poured in a career-high 27 points on Monday against Northeastern. Stamford’s Jonas Harper, who teamed with Whyte at St. Luke’s School as well, scored just four points while Newtown’s Nevin Zink went scoreless in 17 minutes. All three Connecticut products started for BU.

Diarra and Karaban made their first starts at UConn. Diarra played 58 games over two seasons at Texas A&M, starting nine of them.

Mitchell Layton / Getty Images UConn’s Adama Sanogo, seen in January in a game against Butler, had a 27 points in a win over Boston University Friday.