UConn powers into final as dominance continues

HOUSTON — UConn doled out another drama-free basketball beatdown Saturday, getting 21 points and 10 rebounds from Adama Sanogo to dispatch Miami 72-59 and move one win from the school’s fifth national title.

Jordan Hawkins overcame his stomach bug and scored 13 for the Huskies, who came into this most unexpected Final Four as the only team with any experience on college basketball’s final weekend and with the best seeding of the four teams in Houston — at No. 4.

Against fifth-seeded Miami, they were the best team on the court from beginning to end. Starting with three straight 3s — one jumper from Hawkins and two set shots from Sanogo — UConn took a quick 9-0 lead and never trailed.

On Monday in the title game, the Huskies will face San Diego State, which became the first team to hit a buzzer-beater while trailing in a Final Four game for a 72-71 victory over Florida Atlantic.

That was an all-timer. This one was more of the same from the Huskies (30-8). The double-digit victory over Miami was UConn’s closest win in five tournament games. The Huskies have outscored their opponents by a total of 103 points in this tournament, making them the seventh team all time to have a points differential of at least 100 entering an appearance in the national title game, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

Since the tournament expanded in 1985, UConn is also the sixth team to enter the final having won each tournament game by double digits, according to ESPN Stats & Info. Four of the previous five teams went on to win it all.

Some thought Miami (29-8), with four players who have scored 20 points at least three times this season, might be the team to challenge the Huskies. Not to be.

Isaiah Wong led the Canes with 15 points on 4-for-10 shooting. Harassed constantly by Sanogo, 7-foot-2 Donovan Clingan and the rest of Connecticut’s long-armed, rangy perimeter players, Miami, which came in with the nation’s fifth-best offense, shot 25% in the first half and 33.3% for the game.

UConn had its own sort of buzzer-beater. It was a 3 from Alex Karaban that sent the Huskies and coach Dan Hurley jogging into the locker room with a 13-point halftime lead.

The Huskies built it to 20 before the first TV timeout of the second half. By then, Jim Nantz, calling his last Final Four, could start saving his voice for Monday.

Miami did get it under double digits a few times, but this never got interesting. Not helping: Hurricanes guard Nijel Pack missed about 5 minutes after managers had trouble locating a substitute for a malfunctioning shoe. Pack finished with eight Saturday night, and Jordan Miller, who hit all 20 shots he took from the floor and the line in Miami’s Elite Eight win, went 4-for-10 for 11 points. Only one Miami player made more than half his shots.

UConn had five blocks, including two from Sanogo, and 19 assists, led by eight from Tristen Newton — both signs of the sort of all-around effort the Huskies have been putting in since the start of February, after a six-loss-in-eight-games stretch halted their momentum.

That cold stretch is a big reason they were seeded only fourth for March. Now it’s April and the number UConn is thinking about is five — as in a fifth title that will come if it can keep this up for one more game.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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