UConn men hold off St. John’s for 69-65 win in Big East home opener

HARTFORD -– As the final seconds ticked off the clock, clinching a hard-fought 69-65 win over St. John’s in a sold-out XL Center Saturday night, Dan Hurley turned to those sitting behind the team’s bench and wished them a Merry Christmas.

“We saved Christmas for a lot of people in Connecticut and for ourselves today,” he said. “A loss here tonight would’ve been a lot of doom and gloom for a lot of people.”

Down two, St. John’s missed a pair of free throws with 17.7 seconds left on the clock and Tristen Newton, who led the Huskies with 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists, was fouled and tacked one more onto the lead. The Johnnies attempted to tie the game with a 3-pointer with eight seconds to go, also off the mark, and Hassan Diarra sealed the game at the foul line.

The Huskies came back from a six-point halftime deficit and held off a late run from the Red Storm, who took the lead around the four-minute mark. It is the program’s first single-digit margin of victory since last year’s Big East Tournament win over Providence and first win by less than five points since beating Villanova, 71-69, on Feb. 22, 2022.

“We proved that we can win the beauty pageant, when the game is not allowed to be as physical as these games are,” Hurley said. “These Big East games, man, are so physical. It’s gonna be that way for the next 18 games and I thought we showed just a tremendous resolve and resilience with how we responded today. I thought we showed a championship response to how we played (against Seton Hall Wednesday).”

Cam Spencer finished with 15 points on 5 of 9 shooting – including two momentum-grabbing 3-pointers in the second half – and Samson Johnson had a career-high 16 with four rebounds and a block in his second collegiate start. The Huskies got nine points from Alex Karaban and eight, all in the second half, from Stephon Castle, who made a handful of critical plays down the stretch despite having four fouls.

UConn (11-2, 1-1 Big East) got out to an 8-1 lead as St. John’s missed its first five shots from the field, but a 2-3 zone defense slowed down the Huskies’ offense significantly and made it difficult to create good shots along the perimeter.

Johnson, in the starting lineup as Donovan Clingan sat in khakis with a boot on his right foot, scored 10 points in the first half. He had two fouls in 16 first half minutes, forcing Hurley to turn to a smaller lineup and, juggling the foul situation with Karaban as well, little-used freshman Youssouf Singare found some playing time in the opening period.

“I’m so proud, I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of a guy stepping in,” Hurley said. “He’s such a critical piece and if he didn’t play like that we didn’t have a chance because he played against one of the best big guys in the country and he won the matchup.”

His matchup, 6-foot-11 Joel Soriano, had 10 points and six rebounds in the first half as UConn trailed for the second straight game, 32-26, at the break. Soriano finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks, only playing 13 minutes in the second half as he got into foul trouble.

Normally at halftime, Hurley and the coaches will go into a separate area of the locker room and give the team about five minutes to decompress before going in to talk. There was no cool-down period on Saturday.

“We immediately went in there and started (partially) laying into them for the easy baskets – they had like two transition baskets, I thought we were getting bullied a little bit,” Hurley said. “We challenged them a little bit, I know I did, I know Kimani (Young) did. But they looked pretty determined and obviously the first two minutes, we responded.”

Spencer, who didn’t shoot a 3-pointer in the first half, made his first attempt in the second and swiped the ball away from Soriano, finding Newton on the break for a 3-point play. The fifth-year guard turned to fire up the crowd after words were exchanged between teams. Once the hostility settled, Newton found Johnson wide open under the basket for a dunk that tied the game and sent the sold-out arena into a frenzy.

Spencer added a pair of free throws to take the lead just over two and a half minutes into the second half.

“Cam is always gonna be the guy who’s gonna have somebody’s back, so he gave us energy, the crowd got into it and the 10-0 run really helped us out because we were dead at that point,” Newton said.

The Huskies made four of their first eight 3-point attempts after the break. Newton’s first of the game gave UConn a 56-51 lead around the eight-minute mark. St. John’s, refusing to go away, hit consecutive 3-pointers, the team’s third and fourth of the game, to take a 63-61 lead – its first in about 12 minutes – with 4:15 on the clock.

Hurley trusted Castle to remain in the game with four fouls down the stretch, and the decision paid off. Castle tipped-in a missed 3-pointer and, after a Newton layup that reclaimed the lead, he finished a fastbreak layup through contact to put the Huskies up four, 67-63, with two minutes left.

“At halftime he had good body language and I told him to just stay ready and (he is) going to make big plays for us down the stretch and he ended up doing so,” Spencer said. “He’s a great defender, made big plays, had the big and-one and the big layup in the middle of that zone. Really proud of Steph tonight.”

UConn will have a mandatory three-day break for the holidays and return to Storrs for practice on Dec. 27. The Huskies return to action after the new year with DePaul coming to Storrs on Jan. 2.

“I think we showed a little bit of fatigue, these guys have earned the three days off and we’ll have some time to rest and work on some things and get back to looking like a much sharper team,” Hurley said. “Gutty win.”