FDU’s perfection continues after dominant win over Le Moyne

By Ray Floriani (@rfloriani)

TEANECK, N.J. — It was a significant night on several levels for FDU. 

First, a 66-38 victory over Le Moyne. That improved the Knights’ record to a perfect 16-0 in NEC play.

Next, the NEC regular season championship was clinched. With it comes homecourt advantage throughout the conference tournament.

Not to be discounted or overlooked was another outstanding defensive effort by Stephanie Gaitley’s Knights. Thursday’s game at the Bogota Savings Bank Center saw FDU improve to 25-4 overall behind 14 points from Madlena Gerke and 10 from Ava Renninger added 10.

Points of Emphasis

Tempo-free: Entering the contest, Le Moyne had an average 90 offensive efficiency. In a 62-possession game, FDU held a 107-62 edge in offensive efficiency.

For the season, FDU allows an 80 efficiency on the defensive end. That is good for 12th-best nationally. The leader is UConn, with a defensive efficiency of 69.

Defense and no easy shots: “Look at that score,” Gaitley said. “We did not shoot the ball particularly well, we played really good defense. We just did a great job on defense and rebounding. Those are two things you need when you get ready to play for a championship.”

FDU limited Le Moyne to 29 percent shooting, including just 5-of-20 from long distance. The Knights also forced 18 turnovers, converting them into 19 points. It seemed that virtually every shot was contested. A scarce amount of open looks were available.

There is no metric to account for uncontested shots against a defense. If there were, FDU would be among the elite in that category as well.

Le Moyne came in with a five-game winning streak and momentum.

“Nick (DiPillo)’s done a great job,” Gaitley said of the Dolphins’ head coach. “They’re solid and very sound. (Ashley) Buragas is tough inside. I just thought we were on our game defensively.”

Gerke, the game’s leading scorer and graduate guard who last played at Evansville, scored eight of her 14 points over the final five minutes of the first half. At that point, Le Moyne was on a run that cut the FDU lead to 16-14. Gerke’s contribution helped the Knights go on a 12-3 spurt, resulting in a 28-17 halftime lead.

“She’s just a wholesome kid,” Gaitley said of Gerke. “I’m so happy for her. This is her time to shine. This is her last year, and for her to be playing like this on a really good team and being a major part of it is icing on the cake for her career.”

On the night, Gerke hit four of FDU’s seven three-pointers. The senior averages 11.7 points per game, hitting at a 35 percent rate from downtown. Her value goes beyond scoring, as she’s second on the team with 59 assists and the leader with 40 steals.

Inside play: Since the onset of NEC play just after the new year, FDU’s inside duo of freshman Leah Crosby and junior Rebecca Osei-Owusu has played with increased confidence and poise. They have both made FDU formidable, says Gaitley.

“It’s a reason we continue to get stronger,” she said of the efforts on the interior.

On the night, Osei-Owusu scored nine points while Crosby added eight. The Knights dominated the boards by a 48-22 count with 22 on the offensive end. Osei-Owusu (5) and Crosby (3) combined for eight of those offensive rebounds.

Notes: This was a record breaking 35th consecutive regular-season conference win by FDU. The Knights’ last setback was on February 24, 2024, ironically against Le Moyne.

FDU shot 37 percent from the floor and 7-of-30 from three. Offsetting the cold shooting was the fact that FDU was guilty of only nine turnovers.

Renninger scored all of her points in the second half. The sophomore guard also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

At the conclusion of the third period, Le Moyne coach Nick DiPillo was assessed two technical fouls and ejected from the contest. Casey Filiault ran the team in the final period. DiPillo was not asked, nor did he offer any insight regarding the ejection after the game, but did comment on how pleased he is to see his young team playing as of late.

“I’m sure we will be back here again,” he said, hinting at a possible NEC tournament rematch.

FDU hosts LIU on Saturday for senior day. Le Moyne hosts New Haven on the same day.

Karaban’s Storrs swan song serves as one more memory for one of UConn’s greatest legends

Alex Karaban suits up one more time in front of home crowd Saturday when UConn takes on Seton Hall on senior day at Gampel Pavilion. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)

STORRS, Conn. — Thirty-three times over the past four years, a 6-foot-8 forward from Southborough, Massachusetts has been introduced to crowds at Gampel Pavilion.

Wearing number 11, this forward would go on to spend the seasons that ensued etching his name into history, crafting intricate winning patterns and becoming an increasingly rare breed in today’s college basketball world. In an era where players are easily enticed by the lure of seven-figure paydays in the transfer portal, this particular player decided not to move, returning twice after a pair of national championships and speculation that he would declare for the NBA before his time was up.

Perhaps it seems more fitting than ever this year that this man wore number 11, a duality of sorts that symbolizes his number-one standing atop his program’s all-time wins list and an equal place at the mountaintop of the University of Connecticut fan base’s collective heart.

But on Saturday, Alex Karaban takes the floor in the Nutmeg State for the final time as he leads UConn into what will almost certainly be an emotional home finale against Seton Hall. All good things must one day come to an end, and the farewell is something that Karaban, as decorated a player in Husky lore as he is unique to his sport’s present landscape, has begun to make his peace with as he writes the final chapters of his collegiate coda.

“I think it’s more so just trying to be enjoying the moment,” he said after the first of his two adieus to UConn fans Wednesday in Hartford, when the Huskies overpowered St. John’s. “I’m just really enjoying that, enjoying the fans, enjoying the fan energy, enjoying everything that comes with being at UConn.”

Karaban stands now very far removed from the timid, clean-shaven 19-year-old freshman who came to Storrs just over four years ago and began charting a course through an uncertain world. Now a seasoned and battle-hardened young man of 23, everything that has come with donning the Husky uniform has produced highs and lows, records and superlatives, tears of joy and heart-wrenching agony, memories good, bad and indifferent.

The testimonials speak for themselves: Two national championships, a Big East Conference regular season championship, a Big East tournament championship, a member of perhaps the most dominant college basketball team this century, and 118 career wins representing Connecticut’s flagship. Yet for all the gaudy statistics that would blow a casual fan’s mind, it is the comfort level and trusted voice that goes beyond all the numbers and truly outlines how important Karaban has been in guiding UConn back to college basketball’s elite.

“Just the calming influence of being in the huddle or being on the court with a two-time national champion and the all-time wins leader,” Dan Hurley said last Saturday after UConn defeated Villanova, highlighting Karaban’s greatest unsung quality. “The four guys that are with him on the court are getting probably better advice on what to do than those players are getting from me. So just to have that on the court with your guys, or when you’re on the wrong side of a run and you’ve got that guy just talking to players…and a lot of times, there’s a lot of players that say the wrong stuff to their teammates in huddles. But on the court, this is a guy that is truly like having an associate head coach on the court.”

“This guy right here is a legend,” Tarris Reed, Jr. added, gesturing toward Karaban. “It’s cool playing alongside him.”

All the countless big shots, the clutch three-pointers in UConn’s 2023 national championship run, the many other instances in which Karaban tugged on Superman’s cape, will almost certainly be part of whatever pregame montage the Huskies will honor him and his four senior classmates — Reed, Malachi Smith, Dwayne Koroma and Alec Millender — with. 

The headliner of the outgoing group plans to take it in stride as it happens, but there is no guarantee that neither Karaban nor Hurley will let a crack of emotion seep through their steely facades. All each can do is live in the moment, a moment that will signify a player Hurley described as “really fucking weird” upon his arrival as an all-time great Husky whose impact may still be hard to accurately quantify just off all the intangibles.

“When you go out there, you’re playing basketball,” Karaban said. “But when we go in and run, we just try to hype up the crowd and really just soak in all those feelings. So I’m definitely trying to enjoy every second that I have left in this jersey, in this program.”

For one more time, the 66th time featuring Alex Karaban, it is gameday in the basketball capital of the world.

Inside the Numbers: Liberty at Kennesaw State

 

Kennesaw State guard R.J. Johnson paced the Owls in Thursday's victory over Liberty.  (Photo:  Kennesaw State Athletics)

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KENNESAW, Ga. – Following its first conference loss of the season – and first loss period in 70 days – Liberty boarded the bus to do battle with an old rival to try to get back to its winning ways.

Unfortunately for the Flames, R.J. Johnson and Frankquon Sherman had written a different ending to this story.

Johnson and Sherman combined for 43 points and thwarted every Liberty charge Thursday night, with Kennesaw State dealing Liberty a 74-65 loss in VyStar Arena.

Now that you know what happened, let’s go…Inside the Numbers!

224:  Our good friends over at VinesPom Connection (@ASORVinesPom on Twitter – go follow them!) pointed out that, after tonight, Liberty is 224th in the country in team defensive efficiency. No Liberty team since 2015-16 has finished in that neighborhood. Additionally, the Flames had their ninth-worst defensive efficiency since 2002 (the KenPom era).

26:  Johnson’s 26 weren’t a career-best, or even a season-high – that was 32 against Sam Houston State earlier this year – but the Huntsville, Ala., native dominated the game for large stretches. Johnson sank 8-of-13 from the deck – 5-of-6 from three – and absolutely dominated the second half. Johnson scored 20 of those 26 in the second half and missed just once in the stanza.

“He’s done a great job filling in for (suspended) Simeon Cottle, and (Kennesaw State) coach (Antoine) Pettway has empowered him,” Liberty coach Ritchie McKay said. “He’s playing like an all-league player.”

“He’s a tough matchup. He was recruited at the high-major level. There’s a lot of those guys in this league. Defensively, we let him get loose because we had a couple miscommunications on his actions. That’s something we will make sure we do a better job of next time, because that obviously hurt us.”

11:12:  The Flames turned in an 11:12 assist-to-turnover ratio Thursday, which seemed to vex McKay a bit despite Liberty’s normal style. Several of those turnovers came late in the shot clock, where the Flames were either still passing as the shot clock ran out or passed into a turnover. Those turnovers resulted in 15 Owl points.

“That’s who we are. We’re really unselfish,” McKay said. “I do think there were some opportunities that we may not have capitalized on. I’d rather err on the side of selflessness.”

“They made it hard for us. They really did. They played off (forward) Zach (Cleveland) and tried to have some rim protection down there.”

This carries us to our next number…

19-23:  Liberty stayed in the game by working its way to the line. The Flames knocked down 82.6 percent of their tries from the stripe, good for the fourth-highest free throw percentage they’ve booked this season. Three of the top four games (at Delaware, at New Mexico State) came on the road.

“We got to the line 23 times,” McKay said. “I get that people are going to run us off the line, make us finish at the rim, and be really physical. If the guards can’t get free up top, that’s the only way to combat it.”

11-18:  The Owls’ performance from the perimeter represented two season-highs against the Flames. Kennesaw State became the third opposing team to hit 11 threes in a game against Liberty this season, while the Owls’ 61.1 percent from beyond the arc was the highest by any Flames opponent this year.

“They were 11-for-18 from three,” McKay said. “At least three of them – maybe four – were on a coverage mistake. That’s on us. We’ve got to do a better job there.”

1:  Liberty snatched just one offensive rebound in the contest. The Flames are not known for this as it is – the Flames usually crash the boards with one rebounder to allow them to get set up in transition defense.

The Flames booked just one offensive board for the third time this season (at Sam Houston State, Western Kentucky), which gives Liberty one offensive rebound in back-to-back games. Liberty did not board a single miss in a 16-point win against Middle Tennessee earlier this season.

6:  Sherman finished just one board shy of his sixth double-double of the 2025-26 campaign. The 6-foot-7 forward scored 12 of his 18 in the second half while playing all 20 minutes of the frame. Sherman also blocked a shot, recorded two steals, and dished two dimes.

And finally, a somewhat playful one…

0:  Number of trips taken to the monitor by the game officials. Kudos to Joe Lindsay, Will Howard, and Shaun Seales. The game even ended in an hour and 52 minutes!

Next up:  Liberty stays on the road and heads to Jacksonville, Ala., to battle Jacksonville State Saturday afternoon. Game time from Pete Mathews Coliseum is set for 6:00 (Eastern), with coverage available over ESPNU. Kennesaw State remains at home to welcome Delaware to VyStar Arena for Senior Day. Game time is set for 5:00 (Eastern). ESPN+ will handle the streaming coverage.

KENNESAW STATE 74, LIBERTY 65

LIBERTY (23-5, 15-2 CUSA)

Porter 2-8 6-7 11, Metheny 2-9 0-0 6, Decker 5-9 0-0 15, Harper 5-7 4-6 14, Cleveland 2-4 6-6 10, Carter 0-1 3-4 3, Yates 0-0 0-0 0, Smith 3-4 0-0 6, Grimes 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-42 19-23 65.

KENNESAW STATE (17-11, 9-8)

Simpson 3-8 0-0 6, Sherman 7-12 1-3 18, Johnson 8-13 4-5 25, Lue 3-5 1-2 7, Taylor 2-6 1-2 6, Seals 0-0 0-0 0, Rickard 1-4 0-0 2, Smith 1-2 0-0 2, Harris 3-5 0-0 8. Totals 28-55 7-12 74.

Halftime:  Kennesaw State 32-29. 3-Point goals:  Kennesaw State 11-18 (Simpson 0-2, Sherman 3-3, Johnson 5-6, Taylor 1-2, Rickard 0-1, Harris 2-4), Liberty 8-22 (Porter 1-5, Metheny 2-7, Decker 5-7, Harper 0-2, Carter 0-1). Fouled out:  NA.  Rebounds:  Kennesaw State 32 (Sherman 9), Liberty 21 (Metheny 4). Total fouls:  Kennesaw State 17, Liberty 13. Technicals:  NA.

 

UNC Asheville holds off challenge from Runnin’ Bulldogs

By Jacob Conley (@gwujake)

BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. — The UNC Asheville Bulldogs survived a scare on the road from the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs, getting several key buckets from Kameron Taylor, who had a game-high 24 points, to erase a halftime deficit and win, 77-71.

Despite the difference in the records, Asheville head coach Mike Morrell expected a battle, and got one.

“Give Gardner-Webb a ton of credit,” he said. “They challenged us tonight. They have been playing much better lately. Jeremy Luther is an outstanding coach. It was anybody’s game with about four minutes left. Then we got some stops and Kam scored some big buckets. That was the difference.”

GWU’s senior walk-ons, Isaiah Hicks and Paul Lindberg scored the first five points for the Runnin’ Bulldogs, but Asheville started 5-of-7 from the floor and led, 12-8. The home team tied the score at 15 on five straight points from Navuan Peterson. After Jacob Hogarth’s three-point play gave GWU its first lead, Taylor’s three put Asheville back in front.

Gardner-Webb stayed close, but Toyaz Solomon got going for Asheville. His dunk gave the Bulldogs a 29-25 lead with 3:49 left in the half. Jacob Hudson converted an acrobatic layup and by the time Hogarth threw down a vicious dunk in transition, the game was tied. Jamias Ferere converted a three-point play and Hudson’s layup gave GWU a 37-34 lead at the break.

Hudson opened the second half with a three, but Asheville went on an extended run and by the time DJ Patrick hit a triple, the game was tied at 47 with 15:43 left in the game. Spence Sims came off a screen to hit a three, as did DJ Jefferson, to give GWU its biggest lead of the game, at 55-48.

Justin Wright ended the run with a layup for Asheville, and Taylor hit a three to cut the deficit to 57-55 with 9:56 left in the contest. Wright added a trey, but a dunk from Hudson kept Gardner-Webb in front, 61-58. Wright tied the game at 63, on a driving layup with 5:08 left.

After a GWU timeout, Hogarth scored in the paint, but Taylor converted a three-point play and Asheville led, 67-65, at the final media timeout. Taylor continued to take over late with a bucket and a pair of free throws. Meanwhile, the Runnin’ Bulldogs went cold from the floor as they fell, 77-71.

BENCH POINT BREAKDOWN: Gardner-Webb outscored Asheville, 40-0, in bench points, as all of the Bulldogs’ points came from their five starters, four of whom scored in double figures.

“That’s the way it’s been for us all season,” Morrell said. “We are not a deep team. We always get good production from Kam, Toyaz and Justin, but we really need to develop a fourth scorer. In the games where that happens, we are in really good shape.”

REBOUNDING TELLS THE STORY: Many will probably point to GWU’s offensive struggles in the final four minutes as the difference in the game. Luther admits that’s part of it, but adds giving up too many rebounds was also detrimental. Asheville outrebounded GWU, 39-23, 15 of which came on the offensive glass. That led to 20 second-chance points for Asheville.

“That was an area of concern coming in,” Luther said. “They are so athletic and strong. We would have the ball and then just have it taken away. That’s what happens when you have 18 and 19-year-olds playing against 24 and 25-year-olds. I hope we have what it takes to be able to hold on to these players for next year. We have improved in every game in the back half of the conference season except for Winthrop. I always knew coming in this would be a rebuilding year, but if we can somehow keep everyone together, I promise next year, we will be miles better. We will be a year older and stronger. If we can keep a team together, I think we win these kinds of games.”

UP NEXT: GWU will close out the regular season at USC Upstate on Saturday, while Asheville hosts Charleston Southern the same day.

“We want to be playing our best basketball come March,” Morrell said. “We didn’t play all that well tonight, but Gardner-Webb had a lot to do with that. We have one more game to build momentum and then it’s March.”

“People think I’m nuts, but I’m excited about the (Big South) tournament,” Luther said. “We are playing better. We have one more game against Upstate, who we beat, and then we either play them again or CSU in the tournament. We see both of those as favorable matchups for us. The guys still believe and we are going to keep believing until the final whistle. Why not? It is March after all.”

CCSU holds on over Mercyhurst, clinches #2 seed in NEC tourney

By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — Can you believe how fast it's happened?

One week from today, half of the teams in the NEC will be done with their seasons. When you’re in the grind of conference play, it truly can sneak up on you. The best thing you can do is to live in the moment and cherish everything, because before you know it, it's over.

This segues well into Thursday’s clash between a pair of teams vying for the same thing for next week’s festivities. Central Connecticut hosted Mercyhurst in a game in which the winner had the inside track of clinching a Top 2 finish in the league standings, the Blue Devils clinching it with a win, the Lakers controlling their own destiny.

“It’s definitely on our mind before the game,” Darin Smith, Jr. reflected afterwards, showing just how finding a way to pull out a victory would go a long way.

Even with such high stakes for what ultimately is just another Thursday night in the NEC, head coach Patrick Sellers and his group didn’t treat it as such. It showed on the court, as CCSU was able to come out with an 80-78 win behind four double-figure scorers and secure its tournament positioning.

“It was a tough game, they’re a good team that’s very well coached,” Sellers said. “We knew they were going to bring everything that they had with both of us jockeying for the two seed.”

The connection between Jay Rodgers and Max Frazier, perhaps as strong as any point guard and center tandem in the country, was on display right out of the gates. Rodgers hit Frazier with a lob to get the scoring going on the Blue Devils’ first possession. The duo finished with 16 and 17 points, respectively, with Rodgers adding seven assists and Frazier grabbing 13 rebounds.

The first half was pretty back-and-forth, with neither side able to build a lead higher than five points in the first 12-plus minutes. A 10-2 run around the midpoint for Mercyhurst flipped the game, but adjustments from CCSU on defense, particularly implementing a zone, prevented it from getting any larger.

“We kept mixing up the defense from zone to man,” Sellers said. “When we went to man, we got a kill in that segment and it got us over the hump.”

A turnaround jumper from Melo Sanchez answered the Laker run and was the start of a 10-0 spurt for the Blue Devils to take the lead back. During this stretch is where Smith woke up, getting on the board thanks to a three-point play in transition off an Elijah Parker steal. Smith finished the night with a somewhat quiet, at least in terms of the rate in which he usually scores, 24 points, hitting 12-of-13 free throws.

At the half, Central took a 34-30 lead into the locker room while only attempting three 3-pointers, drilling two of them. The game plan was clearly to work inside and try to get high-quality looks around the rim.

“They kept switching everything, and whenever I got a smaller guard on me, I called for the ball,” Frazier said. “I know I can get a bucket when there’s a guard on me.”

Mercyhurst started the second half blisteringly hot, going on an 11-2 run in the first 154 seconds to trigger a quick Sellers timeout. After that, CCSU responded well and took the lead back, 44-43, after a four-point play in the corner from Sanchez. The sharpshooting Sanchez finished with 13 points.

“I called timeout to specifically yell at Max, I thought he came out flat,” Sellers said. “To his credit, he got mad and went out there and guarded, then Melo hit that four-point play and everything started rolling.”

Later on in the half with the score tied at 60, Rodgers hit a beautiful scoop layup to give the Blue Devils the lead with under six minutes to go. Central wouldn’t trail again the rest of the way, with Smith and Frazier serving as the closers. Frazier connected on another lob and Smith iced it at the foul line, sealing the hard-fought 80-78 win.

Both sides were trading baskets left and right down the stretch, something that Sellers and his staff don’t love, but a win is a win. 

“Trading baskets and stuff drives me nuts,” Sellers said. “Sometimes it just takes a lot of grit and the guys saying we can do this.”

For seeding purposes in next week’s NEC Tournament, CCSU will now be the No. 2 seed and potentially host two games should it win in the quarterfinals. The Blue Devils could afford a loss on Saturday in their clash with Saint Francis for Senior Day and still be the No. 2.

The Blue Devils will tip off on Saturday against the Red Flash at 2 p.m. with a pregame ceremony honoring five players: Jay Rodgers, Melo Sanchez, Gabe Spinelli, Nico Ashley and Ja’Kobe Williams.

A higher power and master motivation have unlocked aggression in UConn’s big bear

Tarris Reed, Jr. blocks a shot by St. John’s Bryce Hopkins, one of six rejections for UConn’s center as Huskies walloped Red Storm Wednesday. (Photo by Jessica Hill/Associated Press)

HARTFORD, Conn. — So noticeable was the impact Tarris Reed, Jr. made on UConn’s frontcourt in each of the past two games that prompted head coach Dan Hurley to describe his senior center as the man who makes the Huskies’ motor run.

And after Reed followed up what Hurley called his best game in a UConn uniform Saturday with another world-class performance in Wednesday’s annihilation of St. John’s, the praise grew even more effusive.

“He was just the guy,” Hurley said Wednesday. “He was a presence at the rim as a deterrent, his ball screen defense, rebounds, post position and his passing out of traps…if he does that, this team’s gonna have a great rest of the way.”

To know Reed is to understand the humility with which the 6-foot-11 gentle giant plays the game and wreaks havoc on both ends of the floor. Grounded in his devout faith, the Michigan transfer is grateful to Jesus Christ for bestowing the gift of basketball upon him, and credited his force to the higher power in the wake of Wednesday’s massive victory.

“That fire comes from one man only,” he reiterated. “That’s Jesus, man. I get all my strength, my confidence, my everything from Him. Just being the Word, staying grounded, keeping my faith in Him through the ups and downs, through all the trials, and just being out there playing with joy.”

“It’s my last year of college basketball. Through the wins, through the losses, through the injuries, He’s been there by me. My fire comes from Him. That’s my passion, my drive, my everything.”

Reed set the tone early and often Wednesday, going to work on Big East Player of the Year frontrunner Zuby Ejiofor and establishing a paint presence as sixth-ranked UConn fed off a charged-up PeoplesBank Arena crowd. The atmosphere contributed to an 18-0 first-half run that put St. John’s down 20 points heading into the latter stages of the first half.

The Huskies did not stop there, however, as the early spurt was merely a precursor to an all-time defensive performance that held the Red Storm without a field goal for the final 17:28 of regulation, missing its last 24 shots from the floor and scoring only on free throws from that point forward as part of a 2-for-28 effort in the second half.

And after being outplayed by Ejiofor, who went for 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in St. John’s win over UConn on February 6, Reed flipped the script Wednesday, pouring in 20 points to pair with 11 rebounds and a career-high-tying six blocked shots.

“We were just coming into this game looking at the last game (against St. John’s),” Reed said after UConn turned the tables on the Johnnies with a 42-12 edge in the paint. “How I played against (Ejiofor), how we played against him, what could we do better? Not really trying to focus too much on St. John’s, but as a collective group, seeing the good, the bad, the ugly, and really adjusting for this game.”

“This game, ever since we lost, we circled on that Big East calendar. So it’s great to go out there, dominate and really have fun doing it.”

Hurley challenged Reed once again to unleash his fifth gear, and over the past two games, it appears that the big man has not only delivered, but raised it a level as the Huskies chase down a Big East championship and possible No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. UConn’s coach was asked how he was able to keep Reed focused and inspired, and was convinced his senior rim protector could do that on his own.

“Everyone knows,” Hurley said. “Everyone knows when he plays like this, this is what we look like. This is a team that looks like it’s as good as any team, we all know that.”

The attention on Reed’s last few rounds of college basketball has been diminished somewhat by the imminent departure of his teammate, Alex Karaban, after four-and-a-half years in Storrs. But that has not stopped the man described as a big bear by UConn’s resident zookeeper from poking and prodding ever so slightly to entice more mauling at a time where attacks are most critical.

“He’s at the end of his career,” Hurley intoned. “He’s gotta do it. The place that he left, Michigan, is having a monster year. He transferred to UConn. If he plays up to his ability, we could play at the level of the place that he played at before when he plays like this. If he wants to be a draft pick, if he wants to win championships, he’ll keep showing up like that.”

UConn 72, St. John’s 40: Inside the Numbers

Solo Ball exults as UConn avenges loss to St. John’s earlier this month with 72-40 thrashing of Red Storm Wednesday. (Photo by Jessica Hill/Associated Press)

HARTFORD, Conn. — A second-half lockdown, a measure of revenge, an emphatic declaration that one of the powers of the Big East is still very much alive.

All of those superlatives accurately describe UConn’s 72-40 domination of St. John’s Wednesday night, a matchup between a pair of Top 15 teams that had won 30 of their 33 combined conference games entering the contest.

However, as is often the case, some of the stats tell just as significant a story as any words could, so to borrow a feature from my southern bureau chief, Brian Wilmer, let’s go…Inside the Numbers!

2 and 28: The numbers of field goals made, and field goals attempted, by St. John’s in the second half. The 15th-ranked Red Storm missed each of its last 24 shots from the field, a performance Rick Pitino took full accountability for in his postgame media scrum outside the Johnnies’ locker room.

“Give them all the credit,” the hall of fame coach reflected. “It’s all on me. I’m very disappointed in our performance offensively, especially sharing the ball (and) moving the ball. All I know is we didn’t play good offense. We did things we’ve never done, and again, that’s something I gotta question about myself. The team did not do the things we’ve done in the last 13 games.”

17:28: The time remaining in regulation in which St. John’s made its 11th and last field goal of the night. The Red Storm shot a meager 19.6 percent from the floor Wednesday, the first time UConn held an opponent under 20 percent shooting since 2011, when the Huskies defeated Butler to win Jim Calhoun’s third and final national championship.

“I think it’s (about) taking pride in the defensive end, just individual matchups, just really guarding our yard,” Alex Karaban said. “And then just having trust in one another, trust that we’re gonna help each other out. I think we lost that trust for some moments, and we didn’t take as much pride during the moments when we didn’t play great defense. Now we’re getting back to that level that we’ve gotta sustain for the rest of the year.”

Wednesday’s stranglehold marked the first time any team held an opponent under 20 percent since November 18, 2014, when Kentucky turned the trick against Kansas in the Champions Classic. Ironically, the Jayhawks also shot 11-for-56 just as St. John’s did, and also in a 72-40 loss.

32: The 72-40 final score set a record for the largest margin of victory against a ranked team at home, and the 40 points scored by St. John’s is the lowest output for any Rick Pitino team in a career that spans parts of six decades. Both of those stats are courtesy of CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander.

In a purely coincidental twist of fate, Jared Kotler of the Connecticut Scoreboard Podcast also shared that UConn also defeated Xavier by 32 points in Hartford when the Huskies picked up a 92-60 victory over the Musketeers on February 3. Xavier’s coach, of course, is Rick Pitino’s son, Richard.

1: Sometimes the loneliest number, but on this night representative of the turnover total for UConn point guard Silas Demary, Jr. against St. John’s suffocating pressure defense. Demary’s ability to handle the relentless attack of the Johnnies had come under fire leading up to Wednesday’s game, as the junior had committed 19 giveaways between his two prior meetings with the Red Storm. As a whole, the sixth-ranked Huskies only registered five miscues for the contest, the last of which was a shot clock violation in the final seconds with the game already very much in hand.

42-12: The margin by which UConn outscored St. John’s in the paint, a stark contrast from its loss to the Red Storm on February 6, when the trio of Zuby Ejiofor, Bryce Hopkins and Dillon Mitchell had their way with the Huskies. This time around, Tarris Reed, Jr. led the hosts with 20 points and 11 rebounds, limiting Ejiofor to just six markers and four boards. Karaban contributed 14 points to the winning cause while Hopkins, his matchup for most of the evening, labored to eight points on 3-of-14 shooting.

31: The number of wins for Karaban at PeoplesBank Arena, where he played Wednesday for the final time in one of the most decorated careers in the sport. The senior forward’s lone loss in the former home of the Hartford Whalers came as a freshman, when UConn was defeated by — coincidentally — St. John’s in January of 2023, during the last of former coach Mike Anderson’s four seasons in the Big Apple. Wednesday’s victory extended a Hartford win streak for UConn to 27 consecutive games, a number that will next have the opportunity to grow in November, whenever the Huskies play their first home game in Connecticut’s state capital.

UConn’s dismantling of St. John’s an indicator of Huskies’ ceiling when everything clicks

Tarris Reed, Jr. finishes dunk as UConn overpowered St. John’s Wednesday to retake Big East lead. (Photo by Jessica Hill/Associated Press)

HARTFORD, Conn. — UConn did not just beat St. John’s Wednesday.

It systematically broke the Big East leader down, rendered it anemic, and handed a Hall of Fame coach with over a half-century of experience in the sport his worst-ever margin of defeat.

Much will be said of the sixth-ranked Huskies’ 72-40 demolition of the Red Storm at PeoplesBank Arena, one in which UConn (26-3, 16-2 Big East) conceded only two field goals to St. John’s after halftime, the last of which came just two minutes and 32 seconds out of the intermission. That will be explained further in another space at a later time, but the main takeaway is this: If you are a coach and THIS UConn team is the one opposite yours in either the Big East or NCAA Tournament, may the odds be ever in your favor.

“Pain forces people to change,” Dan Hurley posited after an historic defensive effort rendered St. John’s into the lowest points scored by a Rick Pitino-coached team. “I think the pain of that Creighton game, the pain of that St. John’s game at MSG, has done something.”

The most notable side effect of those losses in the past two weeks? The re-emergence of Tarris Reed, Jr. after a regrettable showing a week ago against Creighton. Reed played arguably his best game as a Husky on Wednesday, scoring 20 points to add to 11 rebounds and six blocked shots on a night where his counterpart, Zuby Ejiofor, was no more effective than any of his teammates as the Johnnies shot under 20 percent from the floor.

“This season’s gonna go the way Tarris goes,” Hurley declared. “That’s a repeatable performance for him. The guy’s bolstering defense was off the charts. His presence on the glass, his ability not just to have a guy when people pressure around the perimeter to throw it into…the thing with Tarris is he could repeat that. And if he repeats that, we’re not gonna lose many more games the rest of the way.”

“Through pain, through suffering, that’s where you get the true testament of a man,” Reed added. “When you come out on top, you go through the fire, you go through adversity and you come out victorious, it takes a lot for every man. And that’s all a credit to the guys around me, the coaches, especially Coach Hurley.”

A switch was flipped after halftime of UConn’s game Saturday against Villanova, a contest the Huskies gained control of with a run to close the first half and never let go of after the intermission. Wednesday was somewhat similar, just with an earlier and more lethal strike in the form of an 18-0 run to turn a two-point game into a 20-point advantage that, when concluded, resembled the Huskies’ dismantling of Marquette two years ago in a matchup of Top 5 programs on the same floor in Hartford.

“We just kind of went through a stretch of just letting things slide,” Silas Demary, Jr. said. “And when we locked back in all the way, doing the things that we needed to do, our ceiling is what we showed (Wednesday).”

“We’re competing for a Big East regular season championship right now,” Alex Karaban expounded. “And ultimately if we were to lose this game, St. John’s would have a big advantage heading to the rest of the year. So we knew what was at stake. We knew how important this win was for us, and we just kind of kept playing with that fire.”

In a somewhat coincidental twist of fate, UConn faced a similar tipping point two years ago after a loss to Creighton, one in which the then-top-ranked Huskies were run out of the building in a 19-point Bluejay win in Omaha. This season’s loss came at Gampel Pavilion, but the response and the psychological effects have been the same. And when the shark tastes its own blood, it usually becomes bad news for its enemies.

“We’ve got three chances to win championships this year,” Hurley reiterated. “They wanted to keep alive our chances of winning one of them, which is the regular season, then the Big East tournament. And obviously you’ve got Final Fours and things like that.”

“We’ve played well like this at other times, too. We beat Illinois by double-figure points. We beat Florida, who’s a national championship contender. We beat BYU when they had Richie Saunders and they had a full group, we won one on the road at Kansas. We’ve had other wins. This wasn’t our first good one.”

UConn needs its big bear against big St. John’s frontline to save Big East title hopes

Tarris Reed, Jr. (5) will need to replicate his performance against Villanova Wednesday if UConn is to defeat St. John’s and keep Big East championship hopes alive. (Photo by Bill Streicher/Imagn Images)

HARTFORD, Conn. — Tarris Reed, Jr. might not be the most critical component of UConn’s arsenal every night, but on Wednesday, the 6-foot-11 center is arguably its most important.

The Huskies will need their “big bear,” as head coach Dan Hurley has dubbed Reed, against 15th-ranked St. John’s, who enters PeoplesBank Arena Wednesday having won 13 straight games and seeking further separation in the Big East Conference standings as its championship defense enters its final stages.

The Red Storm also possesses perhaps the most physically imposing frontcourt in the Big East, with Bryce Hopkins and Dillon Mitchell complementing the league’s likely player of the year in Zuby Ejiofor. Therefore, Reed, and by extension, Eric Reibe and Alex Karaban, will be leaned on more heavily to try to match the muscle presented by the Johnnies.

“I think for us, it’s about playing really, really hard,” Hurley said Tuesday. “It’s about when a shot goes up, you’re hitting first rather than getting hit. When you play guys like Hopkins and Ejiofor, they’re some of the most physical players at their position. (St. John’s) guards are physical. Just from the point of trying to inbound the ball, it’s physical all the way up until the shots go up. They make it hard on you to get the ball inbounds. You’ve gotta be able to fight through contact, you’ve gotta be able to fight through being held, and you’ve gotta be able to fight when the ball goes up on the backboard because everything is a fight with them.”

In UConn’s 81-72 loss to St. John’s in the first meeting between the two this season, on February 6 at Madison Square Garden, the Huskies were outrebounded by a 32-26 margin, with Reed being defeated on the boards in a 10-6 count against Ejiofor. The Michigan transfer has been challenged several times this season to channel his aggression more frequently, and his performance Saturday against Villanova is something Hurley hopes can be a building block down the stretch.

“I think Tarris played his best game as a UConn player versus Villanova because of the embarrassing loss that we had at home (against Creighton),” Hurley said. “Going into that first St. John’s game, you couldn’t build Ejiofor up more than we had in the leadup to that game. Hopefully something clicked for Tarris after the Creighton game, because his ball screen defense, his rim protection, his screening, his post-ups were all the best that they’ve been since he’s been here.”

St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino anticipates UConn attacking the Johnnies differently Wednesday, believing his team will see a bigger lineup at times compared to the first encounter nearly three weeks ago. While there is no way to effectively simulate just how physical the Red Storm will be on the floor, Hurley did acknowledge the pressure will be constant wherever the ball lands.

“They put a lot of pressure on the paint,” he conceded. “They drive it, they get on the glass, they put you under constant pressure. They play an incredibly aggressive style of basketball. There’s a ton of physicality going on, and they’re disciplined. (Pitino’s) one of the best coaches, he’s able to get his guys to play aggressively like that, but still have a discipline.”

With three games remaining in the regular season, UConn sits a half-game behind St. John’s at the moment, with Seton Hall and Marquette remaining on the schedule before the Big East tournament. Hurley is not getting caught up in the postseason chatter, or where the Huskies may lie on the NCAA Tournament bracket, where most projections have the Huskies as no worse than a No. 2 seed. Winning the regular season conference crown for a second time in three seasons is of higher importance, and Reed’s battle with Ejiofor, while important, is just part of the process.

“I don’t think I’m gonna go in and mostly be concerned with who wins the matchup as much as just us winning the game,” Hurley said. “If he outplays Ejiofor, that obviously helps our chances.”