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.