UCONN defeated San Diego State to with the NCAA men’s basketball title Monday night (Shutterstock).

The University of Connecticut men’s basketball team won its fifth NCAA national championship Monday night with a convincing win over a scrappy but cold-shooting San Diego State Aztec team, 76-59, in Houston.

After an early surge by the upstarts from California, the Huskies found their rhythm just as the Aztecs lost theirs. UConn opened up a 16-point lead at one point, but SDSU battled back to cut the margin to five.

But the name of the game in basketball is putting the ball in the hoop, and San Diego returned to throwing bricks and faded away.

The Huskies (31-8) had a balanced attack, led by Tristen Newton with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Adama Sanogo scored 17 and had 17 boards; Jordan Hawkins added 16 points.

The Aztecs (32-7) also had a balanced offense with Keshad Johnson scoring 14 points but grabbing only four rebounds. Poor shooting was paired with a poor showing on the boards to doom the underdogs. 

Still, it was a historic performance for San Diego State, which was not given much chance to get past the first round of the tournament, let alone make it to the final game.

Baseball:  Angels and Dodgers post wins

Both area Major League Baseball teams scored big wins on Monday night.

The Los Angeles Angels bested the Seattle Mariners on the road by 7-3, improving their record to 3-1. The victory tied the Halos with the Texas Rangers for first place in the American League West.

Shohei Ohtani and Taylor Ward each hit two-run home runs to lead the Halo attack. Starter Reid Detmers had a rocky outing, lasting 4.2 innings and yielding four hits and three runs. He struck out seven and walked three. The bullpen was near-perfect, however, giving up just one hit the rest of the way.

The Los Angeles Dodgers scored seven runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and went on to post an 13-4 win over the Colorado Rockies at Chavez Ravine. 

Chris Taylor hit a two-run homer in the third and Jayson Heyward went deep with a two-run shot in the fifth. Will Smith added another homer in the eighth. Freddie Freeman went 3-for-4 and scored two runs.

With the win the Dodgers are 3-2 and tied for first place in the National League West with the San Diego Padres.

High schools: Gomez leads big LQ win

Nevaeh Gomez had a career game on Monday for the La Quinta High softball team. As the Aztecs defeated Rancho Alamitos 15-0 in the Garden Grove League opener for both teams, she drove in four runs, scored three and homered to deep center field.

She also pitched well, tossing a five-inning one-hit shutout in which she struck our eight batters. Also starring for the Aztecs was Karen Dam, who stole four bases and scored four runs.

The blue-and-gold are 4-4 overall and will visit Bolsa Grande on Wednesday.

Softball

La Quinta 15, Rancho Alamitos 0

Edison 8, Newport Harbor 0

Segerstrom 8, Westminster 0

Garden Grove 7, South Pasadena 3

Baseball

Savanna 3, Orange 0

Marina 8, Calvary Chapel 3

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