Saint Mary's vs Connecticut 3/19/23 - College Basketball Picks & Predictions

The West Region’s No. 4 seed Connecticut Huskies will face the fifth-seeded St. Mary's Gaels in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday at MVP Arena in Albany, New York.

UConn (26-8) blew past No. 13-seed Iona, 87-63, Friday as Huskies head coach Dan Hurley earned his first NCAA tourney win. Junior Adama Sanogo scored 22 points in the second half for UConn and finished with 28. Sanogo also had a game-high 13 rebounds. Jordan Hawkins chipped in 13 points while Donovan Clingan had 13 points off the bench. Andre Jackson Jr. led the Huskies with seven assists and scored 10 points.

St. Mary's (27-7) beat VCU, 63-51, on Friday as Mitchell Saxen had 17 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. The Gaels also got 17 points from Alex Ducas and 12 points and 10 rebounds from Logan Johnson. Augustas Marciulionis scored 13 points off the bench.

VCU’s top player, Ace Baldwin, suffered an injury and headed to the locker room with a little more than 14 minutes left. The Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year had scored 13 points by then. He returned with 9:03 remaining but was out for good about three minutes later after hitting just one more bucket.