NEW YORK – The No. 3 UConn men’s basketball team saw its 18-game winning streak come to an end in an 81-72 thriller against No. 22 St. John’s in a sold-out Madison Square Garden Friday night.
The Big East’s top two teams put on a show but the Johnnies prevailed, forcing 15 turnovers and getting to the free throw line 31 times on their way to a third consecutive win over the Huskies dating back to last season.
With the loss, its first since Nov. 19 against Arizona, UConn fell to 22-2 on the year and 12-1 in league play. The win was the ninth in a row for surging St. John’s, which improved to 18-5 and 11-1 in the Big East.
The 18-game winning streak was the third-longest in UConn history.
Point guard Silas Demary Jr. made his best effort to put the Huskies on his back in the final nine minutes of the game, after St. John’s was able to take advantage of turnovers and pull away for a double-digit lead. Demary, targeted by the Johnnies in multiple recruiting cycles, finished with a team-high 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting, plus seven rebounds and five assists to nine turnovers.
Alex Karaban had 17 points on 7-for-10 from the field, Tarris Reed Jr. posted 12 points and six rebounds in the matchup of the league’s best centers, and Braylon Mullins and Solo Ball had 11 and 8 points, respectively.
The fanbases went back and forth with the scoreboard early until Karaban landed a 3-pointer from the corner and Reed finished over a smaller defender inside to go up six around the 14-minute mark. But Rick Pitino called a timeout to stall the momentum swing and the Johnnies came out with a 7-0 run that turned into a 13-1 burst to put St. John’s up six with Demary on the bench.
Mullins put on a show with his lightning quick jump shot, putting the Huskies back in front with his second 3-pointer of the night. But UConn, rushed and bothered by the length of the Johnnies, turned the ball over eight times in the first half and couldn’t pull away despite shooting 57.7% from the field and 5-for-9 from beyond the arc.
After a thrilling last two minutes that included a steal and a coast-to-coast dunk from Eric Reibe, the score settled at 39-all at halftime after six lead changes and four ties.
Both teams kept pace through the first three minutes of the second half but Demary went to the bench after picking up his second foul and the Red Storm started running again. They went on a 10-0 run over four minutes as ball security continued to hurt the Huskies, taking the largest lead of the game after Demary was stripped and extending it with a straight-on 3-pointer from Bryce Hopkins that made the score 55-45 with 13 minutes to play.
Reed ended the run out of a Hurley timeout and Karaban hit a floater to cut it back to six, but big Zuby Ejiofor took a break from his physical battle under the basket with Reed and hit his 11th 3-pointer of the season.
UConn’s offense came out of its funk for a minute with Reed, Karaban and Demary each finishing around the basket to cut into the 11-point deficit, their largest since the overtime comeback at Providence on Jan. 7. Dillon Mitchell made a steal in the backcourt and finished a two-handed dunk in transition, only to be answered by a monster one-handed slam from Demary, who shook the World’s Most Famous Arena as he levitated around Ejiofor. Karaban nailed a 3 on the next possession and Demary kept scoring to cut the deficit to one around the five-minute mark.
Point guard Dylan Darling had nine points off the bench in the second half and Ejiofor, the Big East Preseason Player of the Year, put the game away down the stretch. St. John’s frontcourt combo of Ejiofor, Hopkins and Mitchell combined for 50 points and 22 rebounds.
UConn finished the game shooting 55% from the field and 9-for-19 from 3 to the Johnnies 50% overall and 5-for-19 from deep. But Pitino’s squad had the ultimate advantage at the foul line, where it shot 22-for-31 to UConn’s 5-for-12.