BOSTON — The rematch turned into another mismatch for UConn. Stephon Castle had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the top-seeded Huskies and the defending NCAA champions advanced to the Elite Eight with another double-digit victory, beating San Diego State 82-52 on Thursday night in a rematch of last year’s title game. Cam Spencer scored 18 points and Tristen Newton added 17 points and seven rebounds for the Huskies (34-3), who will play the winner of the other East Region semifinal between No. 2 Iowa State and No. 3 Illinois for a spot in the Final Four in Glendale, Arizona. A year after cruising to their fifth national championship — winning their six NCAA Tournament games by an average of almost 20 points — the Huskies followed up blowouts last weekend with their ninth straight double-digit March Madness victory. They have won their games in this tournament by 39, 17 and 30 points. “We suck at winning close games,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “You've got to go with the alternative.” Backed by a virtual home crowd at TD Garden — Boston is about 90 miles from UConn's Storrs, Connecticut, campus — the Huskies made it a double-digit lead early in the second half, 20 with about seven minutes left and 30 in the final minutes, after the teams sent in their benches. Hurley's son Andrew even got into the game with 1:44 left, drawing a celebratory cheer. “We tried to make it like Storrs North,” Castle said. “They showed up for us.” Seven-footer Donovan Clingan, who played just 23 minutes after getting into foul trouble, had eight points and eight rebounds. Jaedon LeDee scored 15 of his 18 points in the first half for fifth-seeded San Diego State, which followed up the only Final Four appearance in school history with another Sweet 16 run. But for the second straight year, the Aztecs (26-11) ran into UConn, which is now three victories away from becoming the first team to repeat as NCAA champions since
Florida in 2006 and ’07. UConn took its first 10-point lead before the midpoint of a first half in which both teams went cold about 10 minutes in. After opening a 27-16 lead with 11 minutes left, UConn shot 6 for 28 to finish the half — and still took a nine-point lead into the break. The Huskies went up by double digits for good in the opening minutes of the second half when Newton — thanks to an offensive rebound and assist from Clingan — hit a 3-pointer to make it 45-33. Up 17 with eight minutes left, UConn scored the next nine points to pull away. UConn won last year's championship game 76-59 and also beat the Aztecs in the 2011 Sweet 16, with Kawhi Leonard’s San Diego State team falling to Kemba Walker’s Huskies, who went on to win the school’s third national championship. Last year, UConn made it five, pulling away after leading by five points with five minutes left to beat San Diego State 76-59. West Regional Chase Hunter scored 18 points and converted a three-point play with 25.7 seconds remaining, and Clemson advanced to the Elite Eight for the second time in school history, beating
Arizona in
Los Angeles. PJ Hall added 17 points for the sixth-seeded Tigers (24-11), who advanced to face either top-seeded North Carolina or No. 4 seed
Alabama. Clemson last reached the final eight in 1980, when there were 48 teams in the NCAA Tournament. Coach Brad Brownell was making his second appearance in the second weekend of March Madness in his 14 seasons with the Tigers. “We’ve battled a lot of things. This is a great moment for Clemson
basketball,” Brownell said. Jaden Bradley scored 18 points, Oumar Ballo had 15 and Caleb Love 13 for second-seeded Arizona (27-9), which had a horrific
shooting night, going 5 of 28 (17.9%) from 3-point range. Love missed all nine of his attempts beyond the arc as the Wildcats failed to reach the Elite Eight for the 12th time overall and first time since 2015. Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd was ousted in the Sweet 16 for the second time in his three seasons. After Bradley’s 3-pointer got Arizona within 72-70, Hunter put it out of reach when he drove for a layup while being fouled by Bradley. Hunter's free throw made it a five-point game. “I just wanted to make a play. At the end of the day, I wanted to get to the basket, wanted to get an and-1, wanted to make something happen, and that’s what I did.”