No. 14 Connecticut cruises past Pepperdine, 88-66

Connecticut center Hasheem Thabeet had 15 points and seven rebounds Wednesday night and No. 14 Connecticut defeated Pepperdine, 88-66, at Hartford, Conn.

The Huskies (10-0) controlled play inside, outrebounding the Waves, 48-28. Connecticut had 34 second-chance points and limited Pepperdine (3-10) to 12.

The Waves stayed close in the first half by making eight of 15 from behind the arc.

“The only chance I thought we had tonight coming into this game was to try to make UConn shoot about 25 threes, and I wanted to get about 40 threes up,” first-year Pepperdine Coach Vance Walberg said. “We’re not the best inside. We’re not very big, we’re not very strong, and when we do get it [inside], it’s hard for us to finish.”

DePaul 65, UC Irvine 53 -- Sammy Mejia scored 15 points and had 14 rebounds and the Blue Demons (7-5) defeated the Anteaters (4-7) at Rosemont, Ill. Nic Campbell and Mark Kelley led Irvine with 10 points apiece.

“I was a little disappointed with our performance. I thought we could have executed a little bit better,” Anteaters Coach Pat Douglass said. “It would have been an upset for us to win but for some reason, we felt we could play a little better than we did tonight.”

Cal State Fullerton 85, Louisiana Lafayette 49 -- Justin Burns scored 16 points and the Titans (8-2) rolled past the Ragin’ Cajuns (2-9) at Fullerton.