STORRS, Conn. — A lathered up crowd on $2 Miller Lite night. Ben Gordon’s jersey retirement. An early 14-point deficit to the two-time defending national champions.
St. John’s didn’t blink.
“We’ve been down before, down big, and we always find a way to fight back,” Kadary Richmond said.
The Johnnies did it again.
Rick Pitino went to a full-court press that ignited the 12th-ranked Johnnies and Richmond and RJ Luis took turns burying No. 19 Connecticut in crunch time.
The result was the Red Storm’s second win over a Top 20 team in three days, 68-62 over the Huskies, and their fourth conference victory this season when trailing by at least 14 points.
Luis’ jumper with 10.1 seconds left iced it, after Connecticut had trimmed an eight-point deficit to two. The building instantly went as quiet as a library. Fans trickled out. A few “Let’s go Johnnies” chants broke out.
“We’re having a helluva year,” coach Rick Pitino said after beating Dan Hurley for the first time in five meetings. “We just have to keep it up.”
St. John’s (21-3, 12-1) magical season has now reached another level, with a likely Top 10 ranking on Monday. The Johnnies have won 10 straight games and 16 of 17, and are 21-3 for the first time since the 1984-85 campaign.
It was not easy.
Connecticut (16-7, 8-4) raced out to a 14-point, first-half lead. It was up five with 9:15 to go. St. John’s never let go of the rope, forcing 22 turnovers and holding the Huskies to 32 points over the final 31:38.
After starting five-of-nine from 3-point range, they missed 17 of their last 20 attempts from distance.
“We look at the ball as food. We’re just trying to take it,” Luis said. “I feel like we’re a bunch of dawgs. We play hard and I feel like we wanted it more than them.”
Richmond keyed a 14-1 run with eight points that gave the Johnnies an eight-point lead. Only 3:11 remained.
UConn sliced the lead to two with 39.8 seconds left. The Huskies opted not to foul, a mistake. On an out-of-bounds play called by assistant coach Bob Walsh, Luis sank a right baseline jumper.
“[RJ] never met a shot he didn’t like, and there was no doubt in my mind he was going to make the shot,” Pitino said. “I was 100 percent sure he would make the shot.”
He added: “There’s no better scorer I think in the Big East than RJ.”
Luis led the way with 21 points and seven rebounds, Richmond added 12 points, six rebounds and six assists and Simeon Wilcher and Zuby Ejiofor each had 11.
UConn was led by Liam McNeeley, who had 18 points. Solo Ball had 13 points, but was blanked in the second half.
Pitino was in a jovial mood afterward. When asked what he would’ve said if someone told him back in November that St. John’s would win 21 of its first 24 games, he cracked: “I would’ve said, ‘How the f— did we lose that one game [to Baylor]?’ ”
Everyone in red was smiling after this victory. This was billed as a week the Johnnies could make a statement, facing two Top 20 teams.
Their resume was missing a trademark win. Now they have two of them, and sit in the driver’s seat to win their first Big East regular-season crown since 1991-92.
“We got everybody on board at St. John’s. We are putting it all together, putting the Garden together with the fans, the student body,” Pitino said. “This is a total team effort, and we have a great team right now. We got it going right now, and we’re not going to let it slip one bit.”
