MBB: Clinches Big East’s No. 3 seed with win over DePaul
STORRS-Just over 24 hours after he was named one of the finalists for the 2022 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award, Adama Sanogo proved his worthiness in a performance that allowed the sophomore to steal the show on Senior Day.
The University of Connecticut Huskies men’s basketball team capped off their 2021-22 regular season in style, enjoying double-doubles from Sanogo (26 points, 11 rebounds) and Tyrese Martin (19 points, 16 rebounds) en route to a 75-68 victory over the DePaul Blue Demons on Saturday afternoon at Gampel Pavilion.
Through a combination of the win and Creighton’s loss to Seton Hall earlier in the afternoon, the Huskies (22-8, 13-6 Big East) will be seeded third in the Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament, which will be held at Madison Square Garden next week. They will thus avoid playing a rested fifth seed (the final seed to earn a first-round by, which went to likewise victorious Seton Hall) and the earliest they can play top-ranked Providence (who took their only meeting against the Huskies this season last December).
After Storrs said goodbye to Martin, R.J. Cole, Matt Garry, Tyler Polley, and Isaiah Whaley, Sanogo soothed them with a hint of what’s to come in the future. The sophomore scored 12 of UConn’s first 14 points as they built an early lead, keeping the lively Blue Demons (15-15, 6-14 Big East) at bay. It was part of a first half that saw Sanogo score half of UConn’s output in a 40-29 locker room advantage, setting a new career-best for points in a period.
Others soon got involved, with the Huskies pushing their first half lead to as high as 11 before inflating it to 18 in the latter frame. Martin and Whaley made a point to go out in style, uniting for 19 points over the final 20 minutes, a bulk of that coming during a 16-5 ruin over the first ten-plus minutes.
But DePaul, seeking to secure just its third winning record since 2007, made a game out of it through a 14-2 run that whittled UConn’s 17-point lead with just over four minutes remaining down to five with 95 seconds to go. It was a run sustained entirely by Javon Freeman-Liberty and Brandon Johnson, who united for 36 points in their visit.
By then, however, it was too late for the Blue Demons to make any major headway. A David Jones triple that could’ve cut the lead to two fell short with 23 seconds remaining, affording Whaley the opportunity to sink free throws that created the final margin. Though Sanogo was limited to only six points in the latter half and eventually fouled out, Martin curated the bulk of his own double-double with 13 points and nine boards over the last 20 minutes. It was good to create the 13th double-double of the Rhode Island transfer’s career and his seventh at UConn.
Safely situated in the third seed in Manhattan, the Huskies will face the winner of the first-round tilt between No. 6 Seton Hall and 11th-ranked Georgetown in the last leg of quarterfinal action on Thursday night (9:30 p.m. ET, FS1). UConn earned a sweep of the Hoyas and split a pair with the Pirates. The Huskies are seeking their first Big East Tournament title since 2011 after they fell to Creighton in last year’s semifinal proceedings. Seton Hall and Georgetown will square off on Wednesday night in the final game of the opening round (9:30 p.m. ET, FS1).
Seeded 10th, DePaul will play in the middle portion of the opening Wednesday slate, taking on No. 7 St. John’s (7 p.m. ET, FS1). The winner will play No. 2 Villanova on Thursday.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
