Notes & Quotes: UConn survives St. John's

The UConn Huskies gutted out a much-needed win over St. John’s at the XL Center on Saturday night. They were trailing by six at the half but tied the game two minutes into the second and then found themselves with a late lead, holding on to beat the Red Storm, 69-65.

It was a gritty contest that saw multiple guys in foul trouble, six ties, and eight lead changes, but Dan Hurley’s squad overcame all that and the absence of star center Donovan Clingan to avoid a 0-2 start in Big East play.

“We saved Christmas for a lot of people in Connecticut,” Dan Hurley said afterward. “A loss here would’ve been doom and gloom.”

UConn (11-2, 1-1 Big East) started with a 6-0 lead but indecisiveness offensively allowed St. John’s to pull ahead in the middle of the first half. Rick Pitino’s squad used some full-court pressure to slow the Huskies down.

Starting in Clingan’s place, Samson Johnson scored the game’s first four points and had a block on the other end to help set up the Huskies’ early lead. In his first start of this season, he finished with a team-high 16 points while shooting 7-of-10 from the field.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of a guy stepping in,” Hurley said. “If he didn’t play like that we had no chance.”

Stephon Castle got the start as well but did not have a great start to the game. Nevertheless, he came up big with eight points, all scored in the final 6:30 of the contest.

“I think he found something late there,” Hurley said. “He can’t put too much pressure on himself.”

Cam Spencer and Tristen Newton each scored 15 points, with nine in the second half from Spencer and 12 from Newton, who hit one of two free throws with 16 seconds left to put UConn up three.

“I thought Tristen grew as a leader today,” Hurley said. “He didn’t play his cleanest game but he gutted out a winning performance.”

St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino said it was a “missed opportunity, but the best game we’ve played this year.”

He added that he’ll have a good Christmas because he’s confident in his team’s future.

“I thought the guys just played their hearts out…it was an excellent game.”

What Went Well

Johnson Delivers. The junior big man had been struggling lately but he shook that off to start this game strong and finish as UConn’s leading scorer for the first time. He powered through foul trouble and some minor mistakes to lead the Huskies to victory. The Red Storm’s star center Joel Soriano finished with 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting and dealt with some foul trouble of his own.

Hurley: “I’m so proud, I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of a guy stepping in, such a critical piece. If he didn’t play like that we had no chance, He played against one of the best big guys in the country and he won the matchup.”

Pitino: “They played good defense on him, but he sat a lot on the bench.”

Finishing Strong. The game was tied with 3:31 left after a Castle put-back and from there UConn simply took care of business. Newton made a tough lay-up and Castle got another on the fast break driven by a nice pass from Newton to go up four. The Huskies held St. John’s to two points over the final 3:31 and hit enough free throws to hold on.

Cam Spencer: “Our team did a great job in the second half of bringing the energy needed to win.”

“Grit” and Other Cliches. Winning ugly. A rock fight. A classic Big East brawl. Every cliche about tough basketball applied to this game and UConn can take pride in knowing that it won an absolute battle. It’s going to have to be this way for a few weeks as the Huskies continue without Clingan through this early portion of conference play.

Cam Spencer: “[In the Big East], it’s gonna be a physical game night in, night out. Tonight wasn’t pretty for us but it’s just one of those games we just had to grind out… a game where we had to win with will. I think we’ll have a lot of those going forward, too.”

What Needs Work

Life Without Clingan. UConn is missing a lot when Clingan isn’t playing. The attention he commands on offense and the disruption he provides defensively is nearly impossible for anyone else to imitate. Samson Johnson is a different kind of player, and so the Huskies have to be a different type of team with him manning the five position in Clingan’s place. This is going to take some growing pains, as we saw on Saturday night on both ends of the floor.

Hurley: “Donovan is one of the most impactful players in the country, just look at the analytics… With his injury… it’s not gonna look as pretty, we gotta find ways to win until we get that real game-changing type of player back, and then we’ll be back to being in top form.”

Testing Depth. Youssouf Singare played two minutes as Johnson dealt with some foul trouble in the second half. He fared alright, scoring his first career points, but he may not be ready to do much more. Other than that, Hassan Diarra (1 point, 20 minutes) and Solo Ball (3 points, 14 minutes) were the only guys to come in off the bench.

Free Throws and threes. The Huskies attempted just two free throws in the first half and finished 16-of-24 (67%) from the charity stripe on the night. With the game on the line, Tristen Newton and Hassan Diarra each made one of two free throws. Newton missed a second that could’ve put UConn up four and Diarra missed his first, needing to make the second to put UConn up four. The Huskies need to get to the line more and make more free throws as well.

From behind the arc, UConn shot 5-of-18 after going 4-of-21 at Seton Hall. That’s a rough percentage (23%) on a decent amount of attempts to start Big East play.

Win Probability

UConn was shooting at a decent clip and these analytics can’t fully factor in Clingan’s absence, but it’s interesting to see that UConn had a higher chance of winning even while trailing in this game.

Misc. Notes

The Huskies seem to be getting every conference opponent’s best shot. Pitino said his team just played its best game. Seton Hall would probably say the same about its 15-point win over UConn on Wednesday, as it was followed by a 20-point loss to Xavier. … UConn faced a former Husky in Nahiem Alleyne. After the game, Hurley said he would’ve liked to retain the reserve guard. … This was Castle’s first start since the Stonehill game this year, and coincidentally Johnson’s first start since the Stonehill game last year. … It was a sold-out crowd of 15,684 at the XL Center. … UConn had 15 assists on 24 baskets.

Up Next

The Huskies have three days off from practice, and a few more days before their next game, on January 2nd against DePaul at Gampel Pavilion. The game will tip-off at 6:30 p.m. on FS1 against the lowest-ranked Big East team in KenPom, at no. 238.