STORRS, Conn. — Over the sport’s first 8:22, Connecticut scored 26 factors.
The Huskies have been getting any shot they wished, threatening to run away from St. John’s at revved-up Gampel Pavilion.
So Rick Pitino went to his full-court press.
Over the remaining 31:22, the No. 19 Huskies managed simply 36 factors.
“Typically you go right into a recreation with a mindset of the way you’re going to play protection and it completely adjustments,” Pitino mentioned after the Twelfth-ranked Johnnies surprised the two-time defending nationwide champions 68-62 Friday night time for his or her tenth straight win. “Typically your recreation plan goes out the window as a result of the opposite workforce tears it aside.”
That call modified the sport.
The press contributed to forcing 22 UConn turnovers, which led to 18 St. John’s factors.
When the strain wasn’t resulting in Huskies errors, it was taking day off the clock, giving them much less time to get high quality pictures.
They wound up with three shot-clock violations, missed 17 of their last 20 3-point makes an attempt and standout sophomore Solo Ball was blanked after halftime.
“I felt they have been capturing the ball too nicely, and what the press has finished for me for 40 years is worn individuals out legs-wise the place they don’t shoot the ball as nicely,” Pitino mentioned. “It’s all the time been the reward that my groups have. If we will put on out their legs, they received’t shoot it as nicely. They have been coming at us, and so they have been getting too many simple pictures. So I felt the full-court press would take a bit starch out of their pictures, take a while within the backcourt and make us extremely aggressive.”
“We pressed greater than we often have, however that’s due to what they have been doing to us offensively early on.”
UConn star freshman Liam McNeeley returned after a monthlong absence from a excessive ankle sprain and scored 18 factors in 29 minutes off the bench.
This marked St. John’s first win in entrance of followers at Gampel Pavilion since 2000.
The final time the Johnnies began 12-1 in Huge East play was 1984-85.