By Kenneth Cross
When UConn used a pair of Adama Sanogo three-point shots to take a 9-0 lead on Miami some three minutes into Saturday night’s second Final Four outing, two actions occurred that may have foreshadowed the potential problems of the Miami Hurricanes.
Sanogo’s two Steph Curry impressions from past the three-point line were unfathomed as he had made only 17 triples in the Huskies’ 38 games. Then, Jordan Miller scored on a layup with 16:33 remaining in the first half for the Hurricanes.
Miami went 1-for-7 to start the game and the Hurricanes shot only 32.3 percent from the floor for the game; quite far away from the 48 percent that the team had averaged on the season.
“Being in the Final Four for the first time in school’s history, the guys being a little bit anxious, and we really never were able to just relax and play our game,” Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga commented. “We were pretty much out of character the whole night, but these guys are great, great guys, great players.”
Sanogo finished with a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds as he was 9-of-11 from the field and guard Jordan Hawkins posted 13 points.
“I know, like guys, they don’t expect my shots, so as soon as I saw him like dropping, and I wait a second to see if he’s going to close out, and he didn’t close out, all right, this is my shot,” explained Sanogo of his pair of threes. “I took my time, and I shoot it.”
Miami trailed 14-4 with 13:45 left in the first half, but the Hurricanes used a 15-5 run to tie the game when Nijel Pack hit a three to force the tie with 8:20 left in the first half.
UConn then used the rest of the half as a decisive factor as the Huskies’ defense held Miami to 2-of-14 from the field with w pair of turnovers. Guard Tristan Newton and forward Naheim Alleyne had a combined eight of the Huskies’ 18 points to give UConn a 37-24 halftime lead.
“Obviously what we tried to do not only didn’t work, I couldn’t even recognize it,” said Larrañaga. “I think, again, offensively we were out of sync but defensively we were too. Everybody was playing so hard to guard their man, there was no help like we intended.”
Wong and Miller led Miami with 15 and 11 points while both were well below their shooting averages as they both finished 4-of-10 from the field.
The Hurricanes battled back twice in the second half as they cut a 49-30 Huskies’ lead to 53-45 with 11:40 to play when Wong scored six points in the 15-4 Miami run.
After UConn pushed it back to 60-45 on Alleyne’s score off the offensive glass, the ‘Canes get closer than 10. For the game, the Huskies wound up shooting 49.1 percent from the field to secure the 72-59 win.
“The effort that these guys gave defensively was unbelievable,” said UConn head coach Dan Hurley. “What Adama did in his matchup with one of the most physical interior guys we’ve faced; what Tristen was able to do in terms of his floor game, in his first half, in particular.”
Miami averaged 79.4 ppg on the season and shot 48.6 percent from the floor and 36.8 percent from three. The Hurricanes didn’t score from the field in the last 6:13 as UConn was a tough defensive matchup.
“They have length on their side and we struggled a little bit,” commented Wong, the ‘Canes’ leading scorer on the season with 16.2 ppg. “I feel like Coach said. I feel like we beat ourselves up. We didn’t really play our game and pass the ball and get the ball moving and we just kept it and we took a lot of tough shots.”