UConn’s MSG return shot down as St. John’s dominates Huskies

NEW YORK — Having erased some of the lingering aftertaste of a brutal loss to Seton Hall with Tuesday’s come-from-behind win over Villanova, UConn had reason to be optimistic Sunday, hoping to remain in contention to defend its Big East regular season championship.

Coming back to Madison Square Garden, where the Huskies had won eight straight games dating back to November 2023, it was not unreasonable to suggest—especially given UConn’s road wins at Marquette and Creighton earlier this month—that the success that followed Dan Hurley’s team to a place affectionately known as Storrs South would amplify against 10th-ranked St. John’s.

For 10 minutes Sunday afternoon, it did. Then, as St. John’s has done to almost everyone in its path, the Red Storm shattered that vision.

The Johnnies, with a crowd advantage at MSG for the first time in several years, fed off their ferocious ball pressure and lockdown defense to outscore UConn by a 31-12 margin over the final 9:45 of the opening stanza, toying with the Huskies for most of the day on the way to an 89-75 victory whose final score was significantly closer than the actual proceedings let on.

“Obviously for us, you play against this team with that defense and that rebounding, with those types of wings and (Zuby) Ejiofor, and the pressure they can put on the paint, if they shoot the ball like that on the perimeter, they’re gonna be a problem for anyone,” Hurley reflected as St. John’s bucked its trend of not shooting threes well by draining eight triples in the opening stanza. “Credit them, they shot it great in the first half and were able to get that cushion, and obviously we didn’t play very well.”

“For us this year, with our defense, we can’t take everything away. We’ve gotta pick something that we want to try to take away, and (St. John’s) stepped up and made them. Credit them, they stepped up and made them.”

Hurley cited the completeness of St. John’s as a problem for his team defensively, stating the Red Storm is, in essence, a pick-your-poison squad with three potential first team all-conference players—Ejiofor, RJ Luis and Kadary Richmond—plus the likes of Aaron Scott, Deivon Smith and Simeon Wilcher. But the architect of back-to-back national championship runs did find one positive to take from a day where very little went UConn’s way.

“I’m stunned we were able to outrebound them again,” Hurley said as the Huskies scraped out a 39-36 victory on the boards against St. John’s. “I guess that’s because they missed less at the offensive end. But we made up for outrebounding them by turning the ball over 18 times.”

UConn has now committed 40 turnovers in two games against St. John’s, who swept the Huskies for the first time since the 1999-2000 season, when the Red Storm won a third time in the Big East tournament championship game.

The Huskies did have a glimmer of hope in the second half, cutting a 22-point deficit to nine, at 62-53, and prompting a Rick Pitino timeout in the process. But when UConn had a chance to creep within two possessions if it made a 3-pointer, an errant pass led to a turnover and the Red Storm capitalized, not letting its opposition draw any closer.

“Obviously, our quality is way off from where it’s been, for a variety of reasons,” Hurley lamented. “But there was an opportunity there. We ran a pinch with a back screen and we had (Alex) Karaban open underneath the basket to cut it to seven, and the pass was a little bit off, we didn’t gather it and turned it over. That was a chance to cut it to seven and put some significant game pressure on them. Being able to finish that play, cutting it to seven, who knows, but we’ve got too many flaws.”

Karaban’s struggles have come to the forefront as this season has meandered on, as the redshirt junior has battled adversity and shooting slumps. Much like last weekend against Seton Hall, where he made two threes in the second half to appear to shoot himself out of his morass, Karaban knocked down his first three attempts after halftime Sunday. And after a resurgent second half, Hurley is hopeful that it can spark something in a UConn team that has four regular season contests left to find a rhythm heading into March.

“He’s going through it,” the coach said of Karaban. “This is what he came back to school for, to experience being the face of something and having to handle that type of responsibility and pressure. It’s part of his development. Obviously in the first half, he was struggling a little bit just kind of catching the ball around the basket, where he had opportunities to catch and finish, but it was good to see the way he finished the game.”

“Going into these last four Big East games of the regular season, hopefully we get him going. But just with the offensive games that Liam, Solo (and) AK were having through the first 30 minutes, this team can’t overcome that. It’s not deep enough and just overall, we don’t go deep enough with the quality to survive 30 minutes of that.”

With Georgetown, Providence, Marquette and Seton Hall remaining for UConn—the latter two of that group coming to Gampel Pavilion—the Huskies have a positive outlook on paper to improve their 18-9 and 10-6 overall and conference standings, respectively. Hurley was not willing to subscribe to the theory of having a favorable conclusion to the season, instead conceding that this particular iteration of UConn basketball is a different product from its previous versions, and on this day, it was not up to standard.

“Unlike our past teams, where there was literally no bad matchups for us, there are some teams that are just not great for you,” he said. “Teams that pressure full-court and get after you, we have the obvious issue with people that can handle and create, and break down pressure. I just think there are some teams for us this year, with this team, are maybe not great matchups.”

“I’m not saying that the next four are all great matchups, but this was really the first time since Maui—and the last five minutes of the Dayton game—where the wheels came off. Most of our losses have just been excruciating losses, so this was the first time that a game kind of got away from us, and a lot of that had to do with the way (St. John’s) shot the ball in the first half, and then just what that defense is like to deal with. It’s not fun.”