By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer

HOUSTON-- UConn topped a remarkable March Madness work on Monday night, clamping down early and breaking it open late to bring house its 5th national title with a 76-59 victory over San Diego State.

Adama Sanogo had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Tristen Newton likewise had a double-double with 19 points and 10 boards for the Huskies (31-8), who became the fifth team given that the bracket broadened in 1985 to win all six NCAA tournament games by double-digits en route to a championship.

UConn constructed a 16-point lead late in the first half, only to see the Aztecs (32-7) trim the result in five with 5:19 left. Bur Jordan Hawkins (16 points) addressed with a 3-pointer to trigger a 9-0 run and the only drama left was whether UConn would cover the 7 1/2-point spread and go 6 for 6 with double-digit wins.

Keshad Johnson had 14 points for San Diego State, which came up one win shy in this, its very first journey to the Final Four.

UConn set the stage for this one over an 11:07 stretch in the first half during which the Aztecs didn't make a single basket. Unable to shoot over or go around this tall, long UConn group, they missed out on 14 successive shots from the flooring.

They went from leading by four to trailing by 11, and when they weren't getting shots blocked (Alex Karaban had three and Sanogo had one) or modified on the inside, they were coming up short-- a dead giveaway of a team that ran out hops after that draining 72-71 buzzer-beater win over Florida Atlantic two nights earlier.

UConn fan Bill Murray was one of the couple of celebrities on hand to watch the Huskies make it five for five in title video games in among the most unanticipated Final Fours in history. This one marked the last that Jim Nantz would call after 37 years behind the microphone.

He's had a lot of UConn stories to inform, though this definitely wasn't the most significant.

Even with that short bout of uncertainty midway through the second half, UConn never ever really let the Aztecs, who conquered a 14-point deficit in the semifinal, begin thinking about anymore last-second dramatics.

This was a group built strictly for 2023-- replenished by Coach Dan Hurley, who went to the transfer website to discover more outside shooting after back-to-back first-round exits in the competition.

And yet, there was something decidedly old-school about the way the Huskies functioned in the early going.

They didn't even think much about 3-point shooting at the start, rather skipping passes into Sanogo on the post and using down SDSU while constructing the early lead.

The Aztecs were too excellent a group to cave and an over-pursuing defense is what triggered the late run to within five. A group constructed on defense just shot 32% from the flooring.

And after its late run, they started getting burnt and Hurley and Co. were hugging it out on the bench before the buzzer.

UConn's latest crowning makes Hurley the third coach to bring a trophy home to Storrs, Connecticut. He joins Jim Calhoun (1999, 2004, 2001) and Kevin Ollie (2014 ).

Far more to come on this story.