On Friday night, the No. 19 UConn men’s basketball team (16-7, 8-4 Big East) lost to No. 12 St. John’s (21-3, 12-1 Big East) for the first time at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion since the 2020-21 season.
UConn was off to an excellent start against the Red Storm. The three-pointers were raining, with the Huskies going 5-11 to begin the game from beyond the arc.
UConn assistant coach Tom Moore said that Ben Gordon, who was inducted into the Huskies of Honor that night, became a “killer” for opponents midway through his sophomore season.
That might also be true for Solo Ball, whom Moore compared to Gordon. Ball scored 13 points in the first 12 minutes, including three three-pointers.
Liam McNeeley returned for the first time since the Huskies’ road win at DePaul on New Year’s Day, leaving with a high ankle sprain in the second half.
“It’s a blessing to be back,” McNeeley said in a postgame press conference. “I didn’t realize how much I was going to miss it until I did.”
Connecticut led by as many as 14 points in the first half, but a 12-2 run ignited by a rare four-point play by Deivon Smith closed the lead to one point with 5:55 remaining in the first half. The Huskies turned the ball over six times in the final 9:36 of the half and went into halftime with 10.
Despite committing a Flagrant 1 foul in the first half, Simeon Wilcher scored five unanswered points to give the Red Storm a 34-33 lead with 2:29 to play in the first half. Tarris Reed Jr. took the lead back, but an old-fashioned three-point play by Zuby Ejiofor helped St. John’s go into the locker room with a 37-35 lead.
Alex Karaban went 0-5 from deep and did not take a shot in the final 7:11 of the game. He finished with a season-low three points. The last time Karaban was ineffective on offense was on Feb. 24’s blowout win over Villanova last season, also scoring three points.
“He doesn’t owe any of us or UConn anything with what he’s been able to deliver here,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said after the game. “But I want to see him fire.”
McNeeley found his stride midway through the second half, making back-to-back three-pointers. He finished with 18 points off the bench, including 13 points in the second half.
“I’m very happy to be back out there,” McNeeley said. “But I’m not happy anymore.”
For a team that averaged 10.7 turnovers per game entering the game, the Huskies suddenly have a turnover problem. They have now turned the ball over 47 times in the last two games and reached 20 turnovers at the 6:04 mark in the second half.
“We were fortunate to win at Marquette with 25 turnovers,” Hurley said. “We’ve been playing with fire. The 22 turnovers, the 47 in the last two games is just really low level.”
Since Reed’s dunk with 11:38 left in the first half, which put Connecticut ahead 26-12, St. John’s outscored the Huskies 53-36.
RJ Luis Jr., who finished the game with 21 points and seven rebounds, made his last four shots, including a massive jumper with 11 seconds remaining that put the Johnnies ahead by four.
“Luis and [Kadary] Richmond got a couple of deeper paint eight to 10-footers which aren’t okay,” Hurley said, who also believes Luis has a professional career in his future.
St. John’s improved to a 38-34 advantage over UConn in the all-time series and now is tied for the nation’s second-longest active winning streak at 10 games. The Huskies had won the last four meetings, with the Red Storm’s most recent win coming at the XL Center on Jan. 15, 2023. The last time the Johnnies won at Gampel Pavilion with fans in attendance was Jan. 8, 2008.
” I think we’ve got a chance in February to kind of get this thing rolling and be looking a lot different in March,” Hurley said. “But again, 47 turnovers in the last two games, we’re lucky we went 1-1.”
The most important three-game stretch of the season becomes massive with a road trip to Omaha, Neb. to take on Creighton on Tuesday night, where the Huskies have never won. The Bluejays have won nine straight Big East games and just beat No. 11 Marquette on Saturday afternoon.