St. John's comes back from 14-point deficit to beat UConn for 10th straight win
St. John's guard RJ Luis Jr. celebrates at the end of an NCAA men's basketball game against UConn on Friday in Storrs, Conn. Credit: AP/Jessica Hill
STORRS, Conn. — Two-time defending national champion Connecticut came out Friday night looking to make a statement that it still is the team to beat in the Big East. St. John’s had an answer: Maybe not.
The 12th-ranked Red Storm came back from a 14-point first-half deficit and again had enough down the stretch to record their 10th straight win. RJ Luis Jr. sank a baseline jumper with 10.1 seconds to play off an inbounds pass from Kadary Richmond to make it a two-possession game, and St. John’s hung on to defeat No. 19 UConn, 68-62, before a sellout crowd of 10,299 at Gampel Pavilion.
“[We] had the right guy shooting the ball,’’ coach Rick Pitino said. “[Luis] never met a shot he didn’t like, and there was no doubt in my mind he was going to make the shot. I was 100% sure he would make the shot.”
Said Luis: “[The coaches] trusted I can make the shot and it was just straight adrenaline. I knew I made the shot.”
St. John’s (21-3, 12-1) has won 16 of its last 17 games, including a 70-64 victory over No. 11 Marquette on Tuesday. On the heels of this victory — which Pitino rated its best of the season to date — it should find its way into the AP Top 10 on Monday.
“We’re obviously a very intelligent but gritty team where we don’t rattle when we’re down,’’ Pitino said. “We did something tonight that we don’t normally do: We went to full-court pressure just about the entire game. We felt that we could take the legs out of their shooting . . . We just wanted to really get after it with our pressure.”
“We’ve got great guys to do it,” Luis said of the full-court press. “We’re long, athletic and fast . . . just to speed up the tempo. If you guys see, they don’t play as fast as us. So we’re just trying to get them to speed up and mess up their offensive sets.’’
St. John’s dogged the Huskies up and down the court in the second half, surviving an awful stretch of 6:31 in which it missed 11 straight shots and never letting UConn get too far out of reach. In the late going, the Red Storm defense went from taut to suffocating and was the backbone of a 12-0 run that produced a 60-52 lead with 3:11 to play. Three of the baskets came off turnovers.
“We look at the ball as food — we’re just trying to just take it,” Luis said. “I mean, we’re a bunch of dogs. We play hard, and I feel like we just wanted it more than them.”
UConn showed its pedigree by closing to within 64-62 on two free throws by Liam McNeeley with 39.8 seconds left. Luis then hit his big jumper, getting free as McNeeley tried to go under a screen, and McNeeley drove the length of the court but missed a layup. Zuby Ejiofor’s two free throws clinched it.
Luis had 21 points and Richmond had 12 points (all in the second half), six rebounds and five assists to pace the Red Storm. Ejiofor and Simeon Wilcher each added 11 points for St. John’s, which forced 22 UConn turnovers and converted them into 18 points. McNeeley had 18 points and Solo Ball added 13 for UConn (16-7, 8-4).
The Huskies put the Red Storm in a big hole early, making seven of their first 10 shots and five of their first nine three-point attempts to take a 26-12 lead. At that point, St. John’s had gone a span of 7:08 in which it missed 11 straight shots.
“This is a two-time national champion in their building,” Pitino said. “They’re going to come out like that — and they’re playing against the first-place team in the league. The crowd’s going to be fired up. They’re going to be fired up. You know they’re going to execute.”
“We’ve been down before — down big — and we always find a way to fight back,’’ Richmond said. “We were doing some uncharacteristic things, but we settled down and were able to come back and get a big win in a tough place to play.”
St. John’s clawed its way back in the final 11:38 before halftime, erasing the 14-point deficit and managing to get to intermission with a 37-35 lead. St. John’s held UConn to 3-for-15 shooting (0-for-9 on three-pointers) in that 11:38 before halftime.
“What the press has done for me for 40 years has worn people out legs-wise [to] where they don’t shoot the ball as well,” Pitino said. “It’s always been the gift that my teams have had. If we can wear out their legs, they won’t shoot it as well.”
UConn scored only 36 points and was 3-for-20 on three-point shots in the final 31:38.
“We’re just refusing to lose and having a will to win and just knowing that we’re one of the best teams out here,’’ Luis said. “We’re going to keep working and being humble and being who we are.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
