Hartford, Conn. — Tarris Reed Jr. had 20 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks and held No. 6 UConn to 20% shooting in a 72-40 blowout of 15th-ranked St. John’s on Wednesday night that snapped the Red Storm’s 13-game winning streak.
Alex Karaban added 14 points and five rebounds for the Huskies, who avenged an 81-72 loss to St. John’s on Feb. 6 at Madison Square Garden to regain first place in the Big East.
St. John’s missed 12 straight shots in the first half and then made the game’s final 24 field goal attempts to lead the Huskies (26-3, 16-2) to their most lopsided win in series history.
“They’re playing so well, the streak they’ve been in. … So it was our night,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “It starts to snowball on you when you have a night like that. Obviously, we played really good defense on them, and I thought we let them down a little bit when the score got to where the score was. And I think it was one of those nights where everything went great for us and everything went wrong for them. But we did a lot to make it happen.”
It was the Red Storm’s biggest loss in three seasons under Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, and their fewest points in a game since scoring 40 against Notre Dame in March 2013. St. John’s suffered its biggest loss to an AP-ranked team since March 15, 1960, when it fell to St. John’s.
For Pitino, it was his second-biggest loss as head coach of an AP-ranked team in his career, just a 33-point loss to then-No. 5 Louisville in February 2009.
“It’s probably only happened to me twice in my career. Once in my first year at Kentucky when we went to Fog Allen (Fieldhouse) in Kansas, but I was playing an inferior team with a walk-on, not this type of team,” Pitino said, referring to a 55-point loss to an unranked Wildcats team in December when I played 198 minutes. Disappointed with our performance, especially offensively, sharing the ball, moving the ball is all on me.”
Solo Ball had 11 points and four assists for UConn, and Silas Demaree Jr. contributed seven points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Jason Sannon scored all 10 of his points in the first half for St. John’s (22-6, 15-2), which finished 11 of 56 from the field and fell a half-game behind UConn in the conference standings. The team’s 13-game winning streak was the longest in 41 years.
Jubi Ejiofor had two quick baskets for the Red Storm early in the second half, but the Huskies scored the next 16 points. A driving layup by Karaban put them up 23 with 13:42 left and St. John’s went the final 17:27 without a field goal.
“I don’t know what it is. I just know we didn’t play good offense,” Pitino said. “We did something that we’ve never done. And again, it’s something that I’ve got to question myself, and I’ll question it because the team hasn’t done what we’ve done in the last 13 games.”
Braylon Mullins had six points and Karaban scored five during UConn’s 18-0 run in the first half. Ball’s driving layup gave the Huskies a 33-12 lead.
Sannon had 10 of the next 12 points for St. John’s as the Red Storm began to chip away at the deficit. Reed caught his own miss and kicked the ball out for a 3-pointer and the Huskies led 41-26 at halftime.
UConn’s starters outscored the Red Storm’s opening five 61-28, and the Huskies had a 42-12 advantage in the paint.
Associated Press and ESPN research contributed to this report.
