Cnn
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The University of Connecticut won its fifth national male basketball title with a 76-59 victory against the San Diego State University on Monday evening at the NRG stadium in Houston.
The Senior Newton Newton goalkeeper led Uconn (31-8) with 19 points and 10 rebounds while the most exceptional player in the Final Four, Adama Sanogo, a junior striker, raised 17 points and 10 rebounds.
“We were not classified in the year, so we had the chip on our shoulder,” said Uconn head coach Dan Hurley, the CBS game broadcaster. “We knew the level at which we could play, even through these dark moments”, He added, referring to the six defeats of the team in eight regular season games.
He said that by entering the tournament, his group had confidence with confidence during the season.
“And when you have the type of leaders like Andre Jackson (a summit of six assists on Monday) and Adama Sanogo, they kept this team together, brought us back on the right track and we knew that we were the best team of the tournament and we just had to play at our level,” he added.
The state of San Diego (32-7) was overcome by Keshad Johnson who had 14 points.
Uconn dragged very early, but the state of San Diego was defeated by an 11 -minute section and eight seconds in which they only marked five free throws and missed 12 consecutive shots on the ground. The Huskies went from 10-6 to reach 36-24 at halftime.
The Aztecs carried out a half-chemin race by the second half and reduced the deficit to five to 60-55 with 5:19 to play, but the Huskies scored the following nine to take a comfortable advance in the last two minutes.
“We fought. We came back to five in the second half, but we gave them too much separation,” said San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher. “We had to be our best. We were not at our best. Many things had to do with Uconn. ”
The main goalkeeper Adam Seiko told journalists that they had given themselves a chance with their second half-return, but Uconn “made a little more games” at the end.
“They have a lot of weapons. They were pretty good,” said Matt Bradley, also a main guardian. “To beat them, we had to make shots. I was in pain. And you had to have a very good match to beat these guys on the offensive side.”
Uconn won each of his six tournament games by at least 10 points, his closest match being a 13-point victory on the University of Miami in the national semi-final.
“I just want to thank my teammates, my coaches who believed in me. If it was not for them, I would not be here right now,” Sanogo told CBS.
Jordan Hawkins, who scored 16 points for Uconn, spoke of winning the crown one day after his cousin, Angel Reese of the State University of Louisiana, won the female title.
“I mean, it is absolutely incredible that we both have this opportunity and I mean that the family meeting will be great, so that’s all I know,” he said.
Uconn between Rarefied Air as the only sixth team to win five male basketball championships from the NCAA, joining the UCLA (11), Kentucky (eight), North Carolina (six), Duke (five) and Indiana (five). All UCONN’s titles have come since 1999 with the last before Monday in 2014.
The UCONN women’s teams won 11 national basketball titles.
