UConn men notebook: Sanogo, Huskies ready for Big East semifinal battle with Marquette

Mar. 10—NEW YORK — Adama Sanogo experienced the thrill of making it to the semifinal round of the Big East men's basketball tournament in each of his first two seasons at UConn.

Both times though, Sanogo and the Huskies felt the sting of defeat.

Fourth-seeded and No. 11 nationally ranked UConn will be making its third straight appearance in the tournament semifinals today when they battle top seed Marquette at Madison Square Garden (6:30 p.m., FS1). The teams split the regular season meetings, each winning at home.

But the junior forward feels being on the losing end the past two years may give the Huskies an edge this time around.

"That will definitely help us," Sanogo said. "We know how the team plays. And this is a team where if they lose a game, it may hurt their season. So, they're going to do anything to not lose a game. So, we have to be on our shape tomorrow because we know a team like that can beat us."

Sanogo was one of three players to reach double-figure scoring for the Huskies (25-7) in their 73-66 win over fifth-seeded Providence in the quarterfinals Thursday. He finished with 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting while grabbing five rebounds.

"It was good to win again," Sanogo said. "This is the third time in a row we've won this kind of game to go to the semifinals. Right now though, we have to focus on the next game, which is against Marquette. That's our focus right now. The last two years, we lost the semifinal game. We have to make sure we win that game tomorrow."

On the year, the Bamako, Mali native is averaging team-highs of 16.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. He's also shooting 59.2 percent from the floor and 78.2 percent at the foul line.

But Sanogo knows that no matter what his stats are, nothing will come easy tonight.

"They're a good team," he said. "They won the Big East regular season. We know how they play, they know how we play. So it's going to be a good game."

Marquette (26-6) had a battle on its hands during Thursday's first quarterfinal, outlasting No. 8 seed St. John's 72-70 in overtime.

The Golden Eagles trailed by as many as 14 points late in the first half, but used a 14-2 run to begin the second to pull in front with 15:18 to play. Over the next 14:17, the lead changed hands six times.

Marquette led 60-56 with 24.1 seconds to play, but St. John's (18-15) closed regulation on a 5-1 run, including the tying layup by Dylan Addae-Wusu with 4.6 seconds left, to force overtime.

Kam Jones' layup 34 seconds into overtime put Marquette in front. The Red Storm tied it twice, including at 70 with 39.6 seconds to play in the extra session, but they never took the lead.

Two free throws from Big East Player of the Year Tyler Kolek with 15.8 seconds left put his team ahead, and Posh Alexander's three to win at the buzzer fell short.

Kolek finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists. David Jones (16 points, 11 rebounds) and Joel Soriano (12 points, 12 rebounds) each recorded double-doubles to led St. John's.

"It says a lot," Marquette coach Shaka Smart said. "We faced a lot of adversity today, and the guys stared down the adversity. They stayed connected. They continued to respond, focus on the next most important thing."

Newton comes off bench

One of the major questions UConn coach Dan Hurley had to answer following the Huskies' win Thursday was why Tristen Newton didn't start the game.

The senior guard had started the first 31 games of the season for the Huskies, but Hassan Diarra started in his place Thursday.

Though there were rumors going around New York and on social media, neither Hurley, the players nor the school clarified what exactly led to Newton, as well as teammate Nahiem Alleyne, being moved down the rotation Thursday.

"In terms of the starting piece, our culture is really important, the way — it's a big responsibility in terms of all the things that you do," Hurley said. "And I just felt like a small message needed to be sent to Tristen. And Nahiem normally is the first guard off the bench. He was the last guy in the rotation.

"Whether you're playing for the Big East tournament or a regular-season game, you've got to have principles and try to teach some larger lessons. And usually when players are put in that situation, they have a bad game because of the distraction that goes on with that. And I was just blown away by (Newton's) mental toughness tonight and being able to put that behind him and perform at a high level."

Newton entered the game for the first time with 12:50 left in the first half, the eighth Husky to enter the game. He finished with 16 points, four rebounds, seven assists and a steal in 26:57. His two free throws with 26.0 seconds remaining clinched UConn's win.

"I feel like when I'm on the court, I just try to make an impact regardless of what time it is in the game or if I come off the bench or start," Newton said. "Just go out there and try to make an impact. Coming off the bench really didn't change that mindset."

Meanwhile, Alleyne was the ninth and final player to enter the game when he came in with 9:16 left in the first half. He finished with five points in 12:09.

Second Session

Two other quarterfinal games were played Thursday night.

In the first game of session two, No. 2 seed Xavier came back to beat 10th-seeded DePaul 89-84.

The Muskateers (24-8) trailed by as many as 13 early in the second half before taking their first lead since 3-2 on a putback by Jack Nunge that made it 81-80 with 2:01 to play.

Nunge recorded a double-double (23 points, 10 rebounds) while Umoja Gibson paced the Blue Demons (10-23) with 22 points.

In the final game of the night, third-seeded Creighton withstood a late push to top No. 6 seed Villanova 87-74.

The Bluejays (21-11) led by 20 with 6:37 to play when the Wildcats (17-16) went on an 11-0 run over the next 1:53 to cut the score to 65-56. But an alley-oop from Arthur Kaluma to Ryan Kalkbrenner with 3:25 to play pushed Creighton's lead to double-digits for good.

Kalkbrenner finished with a game-high 21 points while Eric Dixon paced Villanova with 20.

Creighton and Xavier will meet in the second semifinal tonight (9 p.m., FS1).

Worth quoting

"Yeah, I thought they were all too close. (Hurley's father Bob) was trying to whisper stuff. When the run was going, he was trying to whisper some things: Get this guy out; call timeout. I could hear him moaning and groaning. I just thought they were too close. They shouldn't be there. They should be back. I hope they're not in the same seats tomorrow." — Hurley on his parents sitting next to the Huskies' bench Thursday.

For coverage of UConn football and men's basketball as well as area high school and local youth sports, follow Adam Betz on Twitter: @AdBetz1, Facebook: Adam Betz — Sports Writer, and Instagram: @AdBetzJI.