NEW YORK – Donovan Clingan landed the first punches as No. 1 overall seed UConn knocked out 9-seed Northwestern in another NCAA Tournament blowout, 75-58, in the Round of 32 in Brooklyn Sunday night.
Clingan blocked a dunk attempt on the second defensive possession and continued to dominate the Wildcats, who were without injured 7-footer Matt Nicholson (foot), inside. He had a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double (with five blocks) at halftime and finished the game with 14 points, 14 rebounds and eight blocks.
Tristen Newton recorded his 11th double-double of the season, 20 points and 10 assists, and Cam Spencer made four Huskies in double-figures with 11, plus four rebounds, four assists and three steals. Alex Karaban had nine points and five rebounds.
UConn (33-3) will meet the winner of Sunday’s matchup between 13-seed Yale and 5-seed San Diego State, who it beat in last year’s national title game, in the Sweet 16 on Thursday. It will be the Huskies’ 19th appearance in the Sweet 16, where they are 12-6 all-time. The game will tip at 7:39 p.m. Thursday in Boston’s TD Garden.
The Huskies’ defense smothered the Wildcats from the start.
Clearly outmatched, Northwestern began the game 2-for-12 from the field and finished the first half just 8-for-31, 0-for-8 from deep. Hounding defense from Stephon Castle and Hassan Diarra held leading scorer Boo Buie to just two points on 0-for-6 shooting in the first half and the Wildcats’ second-leading scorer Brooks Barnhizer went into the break scoreless on 0-for-8 shooting.
Neither team made a 3-pointer, 0-for-15 combined, until Spencer knocked one down from the wing with three minutes left in the first half, giving the Huskies a 33-14 lead.
Karaban landed another with a minute left and UConn went into the break up 40-18.
Clingan recorded his career-high sixth block on the first NU possession of the second half and his seventh just three minutes later. On the other end, Newton drove to the basket and was fouled, he flipped the ball over his head as he spun to the floor and he got the roll, and-one.
The Huskies’ All-American point guard found Samson Johnson with an alley-oop for a dunk, his seventh assist of the game, to put UConn up by 30 with 13:27 left. He found Johnson for alley-oop slams twice more for assists No. 8 and 9 but UConn went into a scoring funk for more than four minutes and Northwestern started to chip away.
The Wildcats cut their deficit to 14 with 3:16 left but Castle, who spent a considerable amount of time on the bench in foul trouble, returned and finished a fastbreak layup almost immediately. UConn coach Dan Hurley began emptying his bench with 90 seconds left and an 18-point lead.
UConn finished the game shooting 29-for-54 (53.7%) and just 3-for-22 from beyond the arc, assisting on 20 made shots.