HARTFORD — Connecticut was the far more desperate team.
The one that needed a win to keep its Big East regular-season title hopes alive. The one that lost the first meeting to their rivals and wasn’t going to let it happen again.
St. John’s?
Well, Rick Pitino’s Johnnies spotted the favorites a 21-point lead, and that was their first mistake. They didn’t meet the Huskies’ intensity, force and determination at all in this 72-40 beatdown at PeoplesBank Arena.
And so St. John’s 13-game winning streak — the program’s longest since the 1984-85 Final Four campaign — came to an end in gruesome fashion. Now, the two teams are tied in the loss column atop the conference, although St. John’s still controls its own destiny. Win out, and they would at worst share the league title and land the top seed in next month’s Big East Tournament.
It was ugly, the ugliest St. John’s loss since Coach Rick Pitino’s arrival three years ago. There were scoring droughts of 7:23 and 10:46. St. John’s couldn’t score and it couldn’t stop Connecticut. The Johnnies were hammered inside and on the perimeter. It was an absurd 42-12 in points in the paint.
Joson Sanon led St. John’s in scoring with 10 points, and he didn’t score after halftime. Zuby Ejiofor, who dominated the first meeting between the two teams, was limited to six points on 2-of-5 shooting. St. John’s shot a dreadful 20 percent from the field, was 5-of-20 from 3-point range and missed 24 consecutive shots to close the humbling loss.
Tarris Reed Jr. was the best player on the floor, finishing with 20 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks Alex Karaban added 14.
Outside of Sanon’s 10 points, there weren’t any positives in the first half for St. John’s. They trailed by as many as 21, were down 15 at the break, and were out of sorts for much of the opening 20 minutes.
UConn broke it open with an 18-0 run that included a 7:23 Johnnies scoring drought.
They started by missing 16 of their first 20 shots. Ejiofor managed just a single free throw, while Reed overwhelmed St. John’s to the tune of 14 points, four rebounds and three assists.
St. John’s was out-rebounded by four, forced just two turnovers and had only one second-chance point. They were outscored, 10-0, in transition.
Everything that went their way in the first game was in Connecticut’s favor in the first half.
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