NEW YORK CITY — The tone was set right away.
As St. John’s came sprinting out of the tunnel and onto the Madison Square Garden floor, the first “Let’s go Johnnies!” chant rang out. Minutes later, the place erupted when Rick Pitino sauntered out to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind.” Conversely, Dan Hurley and the Huskies were showered with boos during their introductions. Before the game even tipped off, the thousands of St. John’s fans in attendance had sent a message: This is our house. Not Storrs South.
Spurred on by the raucous crowd, No. 22 St. John’s took down No. 3 UConn, 81-72, to improve to 18-5 (11-1 in the Big East) and snap the Huskies’ 18-game winning streak. It was undoubtedly one of the best victories of the Pitino era, fully reestablishing St. John’s as a Final Four contender and boosting its NCAA Tournament resume dramatically after a shaky start to the season. Prior to Friday, the last time the Red Storm had toppled an opponent ranked in the top three nationally was February 3, 2021, when they beat No. 3 Villanova at Carnesecca Arena.
“It was a really passionate game,” said St. John’s senior forward Zuby Ejiofor, who finished with a game-high 21 points to go along with 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals. “It was a meaningful game. We knew exactly what we were playing for.”
For a regular-season game, this was about as big as it gets. The top two teams in the Big East. Hurley vs. Pitino. The World’s Most Famous Arena. The matchup marked just the second time in Big East history that two programs have met in February with one or fewer combined losses in league play. It was also the first ranked vs. ranked UConn-St. John’s game at MSG since 2000. In the eight previous times the schools had battled while both nationally ranked, UConn had won four and St. John’s had won four.
Needless to say, the anticipation for Friday’s clash was enormous. As Ejiofor put it earlier in the week, “It’s UConn, Friday night, MSG. What else can you ask for?”
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The game lived up to the hype. Inside the Garden, it felt a lot more like mid-March than early February. The intensity both on and off the court never waned. Members of the Johnnies’ student section only sat down during breaks in the action. There were UConn fans in the building, but they were hard to find — and hear — amid the sea of red. “That was a true road game,” Hurley said afterward. And that is basically never the case when the Huskies are at the Mecca.
“It was unbelievable how good the Garden was,” Pitino said. Beforehand, he had predicted that the crowd would be split either 70-30 or 60-40 in favor of St. John’s “That was 90-10,” he continued. “Tremendous crowd. Proud of our fans and excited for our fans.”
“Every second of the game, you hear them,” said St. John’s senior Dillon Mitchell, a 6-foot-8 forward who put up 15 points and 6 rebounds. “It’s definitely different. It’s something that I’m blessed to be a part of.” Mitchell added that the fans provided a “big-time” advantage for St. John’s.
The team certainly seemed to feed off of the crowd’s energy, flying around on both sides of the ball. Its full-court pressure defense flustered UConn, which can be dominant offensively when rolling. The Huskies committed 14 turnovers — one shy of their season-high — including nine from 6-foot-4 junior guard Silas Demary Jr.
“You have to be in great shape to do what they do (defensively),” said Hurley. “It disrupts your ability to get into what you want to do offensively… That’s a top-20 defense, easy. They’re hard to beat.”
St. John’s also won the rebounding battle, 32-26, and was relentless attacking the basket, attempting 31 free throws to UConn’s 12.
The game was tied 39-39 at the break, but the Red Storm seized control early in the second half. A three-pointer from 6-foot-7 senior forward Bryce Hopkins (14 points, 6 rebounds) capped a 10-0 run that gave them a 55-45 advantage at the 13:03 mark. During the ensuing timeout, a St. John’s fan nailed a 50-foot putt to win four tickets to the U.S. Open, further igniting the crowd.
At that point, it felt as though the game might spiral into a blowout. But as championship-caliber teams do, UConn fought back. The Johnnies’ lead was down to two with a little over three minutes remaining when 6-foot-1 junior guard Dylan Darling buried a step-back three. On the ensuing possession, Darling, who was a massive spark off the bench, dished to Ejiofor for a six-foot hook shot.
An absurdly athletic tip-in from Mitchell made it 76-70 with 1:39 left, helping the Red Storm seal the deal.
“We made a lot of big plays tonight,” Pitino said, “and I’m proud of our guys for not panicking one bit at any point in the game.”
After struggling through a difficult non-conference slate — plummeting from No. 5 in the preseason Top 25 to unranked with losses to Alabama, Iowa State, Auburn and Kentucky — St. John’s has found its rhythm and played as well as any team in the country over the past month. Since moving Mitchell into the starting lineup in early January, the Red Storm have won nine games in a row. They have made tremendous strides on defense, looking increasingly like a classic Pitino-led team. The frontcourt — Mitchell, Hopkins and Ejiofor — has been particularly special. “They’re one of the best frontcourts in the country,” said UConn senior forward Alex Karaban, who had to contend with the trio all night. “Those three guys play at such a high level. All three of them are super talented, and they all bring something unique to the table.”
When the new AP poll drops Monday, the Johnnies will have risen significantly, back to where most people anticipated they would be for a majority of the year. Unsurprisingly, it took time for a roster composed of a whopping 11 new players to figure things out. But through the ups and downs, Pitino has maintained confidence in this group because of its character.
“Like I’ve said so many times, this is the best group of people, character-wise, that I’ve coached in my 52 years,” Pitino said. “There’s not one problem, not one guy who gets out of line, not one guy who doesn’t give me everything. They root for each other, whether they play 10 seconds or 10 minutes. So it’s a unique group, and that’s why they keep getting better and better.”
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