This version of the Red Storm, the one that has gone from an early-season disappointment to a March contender over the last five weeks in winning nine straight games, proved it is for real at a raucous and sold-out Garden.<\/p>\n
The previous eight wins in this streak were impressive. Friday night was different. This one, an 81-72 victory over No. 3 Connecticut, belongs in its own category. It was the best regular-season win of the Rick Pitino era, St. John\u2019s first victory over a top-three team since 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made a lot of big plays tonight, and I\u2019m proud of our guys for not panicking one bit at any point in the game,\u201d Pitino said after snapping the Huskies\u2019 18-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
They closed out UConn by locking them down on the defensive end, getting big plays from Dylan Darling, Zuby Ejiofor and Dillon Mitchell and now have an elite win to go atop their NCAA Tournament r\u00e9sum\u00e9. <\/p>\n
![\"St.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260206STJVUCN1491RS.jpg\")
Zuby Ejiofor slams home a dunk during the second half of St. John\u2019s 81-72 win over No. 3 UConn on Feb. 6, 2025 at Madison Square Garden. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Over the final 4:46, No. 22 St. John\u2019s outscored Connecticut 15-7, and handed Dan Hurley\u2019s team its first loss at full strength this season.<\/p>\n
Early in the year, the Johnnies failed to finish against top nonconference opponents like Iowa State and Alabama. Clearly, this group has come a long way since then.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs hard a game as we\u2019ve had to play all year,\u201d said Hurley, whose Huskies have faced three teams ranked in the top 11 of the country in Arizona, Illinois and Kansas.<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s (18-5, 11-1) led by as many as 11 points in the second half, but it got tight late, UConn (22-2, 12-1) ripping off a 16-5 run to pull within a point. The Red Storm didn\u2019t flinch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used the expression, \u2018no fear of failure.\u2019 I said it every single timeout,\u201d Pitino said. \u201c \u2018Whether we go up 12, they cut it to two, we have no fear, we\u2019re going to win this game.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ejiofor grabbed the offensive rebound of a Bryce Hopkins miss and set up Mitchell for a layup. On the next possession, Darling hit a stepback 3-pointer, then found Ejiofor in the lane for a jump hook. The lead was seven with 2:27 remaining, and the Huskies really didn\u2019t threaten again.<\/p>\n
At the final horn, a euphoric Ejiofor celebrated with the St. John\u2019s student section.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had more of a home crowd than we thought. Everybody from top to bottom was really engaged,\u201d he said. \u201cThe moment when the buzzer sounded, it was over and you realized you beat a really well-coached team, all the emotion came out. I just let it all out.\u201d<\/p>\n
CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS<\/a> AND ST. JOHN\u2019S STATS<\/a><\/p>\n Ejiofor was by far the best player on the floor, finishing with an absurd line of 21 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, three blocks and two steals. Mitchell followed with 15 points and six rebounds and Bryce Hopkins added 14 points and six rebounds. Darling added nine points and two assists, all after halftime.<\/p>\n Silas Demary Jr. had 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists to lead the Huskies but also committed nine turnovers. A year ago, as a guard for Georgia, Demary committed 10 turnovers in a win over St. John\u2019s in The Bahamas.<\/p>\n \u201cHe played well, it\u2019s just that we wanted to pressure him the entire night, just fatigue him,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cThat\u2019s the key to any good defense, just keeping pressure on them.\u201d<\/p>\n On Thursday, Hurley talked about the importance of the Huskies limiting their turnovers and holding their own on the glass. Those two areas proved critical for St. John\u2019s, who had 16 second-chance points and turned 15 turnovers into 20 points. The big frontcourt of Ejiofor, Mitchell and Hopkins at times overwhelmed the Huskies, especially when they went small.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re grown-ass men,\u201d Hurley said.<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s started the second half well, outscoring Connecticut 16-6 to go up by 10 with 12:46 remaining. Hurley used two timeouts to try to stop the run. Hopkins\u2019 3-pointer pushed the lead into double digits for the first time and it sounded like the top was going to come off the Garden.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tYour weekly dispatch from the No. 1 source on the Johnnies\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside St. John’s by Zach Braziller, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n The Huskies responded with back-to-back baskets as the shot clock expired, and Ejiofor sank a 3-pointer, pushing the lead back to nine.<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s had an answer for every Connecticut run. In crunch time, they left no doubt. Afterwards, everyone was smiling.<\/p>\n \u201cCurfew,\u201d Pitino told Ejiofor and Mitchell as they left the press conference, \u201cat 5 a.m.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All of a sudden, the Big East is up for grabs. St. John\u2019s made a loud statement Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[18365,4044,99,14602,31478,14603],"class_list":{"0":"post-454168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-big-east","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-st-johns-red-storm","12":"tag-uconn-huskies","13":"tag-zuby-ejiofor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"St.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260206STJVUCN1888RS.jpg\")
Bryce Hopkins (23) reacts after hitting a 3-point shot during the second half when the St. John\u2019s Red Storm played the UConn Huskies on Feb. 6. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n