UConn suffers upset loss to St. John’s
HARTFORD — When it comes to historic wins in women’s basketball, UConn is used to being on the winning side.
However, by the time the final buzzer sounded on Tuesday night, the Huskies found themselves on the losing side of history for the second time this season.
The No. 4-ranked Huskies fell 69-64 to St. John’s Tuesday night in their final game at the XL Center this season, losing two regular-season conference games for the first time in 10 years.
It’s a program-defining streak that is also now broken just two weeks after the Huskies lost backto-back games for the first time since 1993.
The Huskies were upset by another Big East opponent on Tuesday, and coach Geno Auriemma is simply no longer surprised.
“Nothing that this team does surprises me,” he said. “No matter how good we play, I’m not surprised, because we can. And no matter how bad we look, I’m not surprised because we can.”
The win was St. John’s first over UConn since Feb. 18, 2012, and puts UConn’s perch atop the Big East standings at risk. The Huskies are now just one win ahead of Villanova and will need to win both of their final two regular season games (Saturday at DePaul, Monday against Xavier) to maintain its lead.
UConn (24-5, 16-2 Big East) led for just seven minutes on Tuesday. Sure, the Huskies are playing their third-straight game with only nine available players, but they simply couldn’t keep up with the Red Storm’s intensity on the court. Auriemma blamed it on the team’s multitude of self-inflicted wounds. Point guard Nika Mühl said it was because UConn didn’t bring any effort. It was a combination of both and more.
Both St. John’s (20-7, 11-7) and UConn each played three subs the whole game. The Red Storm’s bench outscored UConn’s 29-3. Caroline Ducharme came off the bench and played 24 minutes while UConn other two subs combined for a little over three minutes. Whenever UConn needed a boost of offense the most, it simply couldn’t deliver as it finished with a season-low 35.5 field goal percentage.
“At this time of the year, nothing’s fixable,” Auriemma said. “You are what you are because if it could be fixed, it would have been fixed already . ... By the time you get to this point you are what you are. And this is who we are.”
The Huskies led by as much as eight after opening the third quarter with a 13-0 run. However, that’s
where their momentum fell.
St. John’s took over and led by as much as six in the final seven minutes of the game. UConn had three starters in foul trouble still playing because it had no other option.
Thanks to a driving layup from Dorka Juhász (14 points, seven rebounds), the Huskies got within three with 30 seconds remaining. But again, they couldn’t capitalize. UConn attempted to extend the game by fouling St. John’s, but the Red Storm made their free throws and spent the game’s final 20 seconds up by two possessions.
“We just had to believe in each other,” St. John’s Danielle Patterson (20 points) said. “I think that was the main thing. We had to believe that we can do it and we did.”
The Red Storm outplayed
the Huskies almost the entire game. St. John’s led after the first quarter 21-15, marking the most points UConn has allowed in an opening quarter all season long. At halftime, St. John’s led by as much as nine in the second quarter and entered halftime up by five.
“Overall I feel like our effort throughout the whole game was just bad and we didn’t match their enthusiasm and their effort and the way they played, with their mindset at all,” Mühl said.
She later added: “When it’s the effort part, it just hurts even more because we could control that. I mean the ball wasn’t going in for us that well tonight. But we’ve had games where we didn’t shoot well and our effort bailed us out every time.”
Lou Lopez Sénéchal led UConn Tuesday with 18 points. Aaliyah Edwards followed with her 11th double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds on top of four assists. Mühl finished with 13 points, four rebounds and three assists.
UConn’s lone wave of energy came immediately after halftime.
Mühl sparked UConn’s run with a 3-pointer about a minute into the second half. Lopez Sénéchal then made a pair of free throws to tie the game. Mühl followed up with a putback layup to put UConn back in front. Juhász added two layups and Edwards added one of her own to string together a 13-0 run. The Huskies led by as much as eight and kept St. John’s scoreless for six minutes.
However, after Edwards was called for a technical foul at 3:10 in the third, the Red Storm made their move with a pair of free throws and a layup from Unique Drake to tie the game. The teams tied twice more within the final two minutes of the quarter, but a three-point play from Jayla Everett (17 points, eight rebounds) put St. John’s on top heading into the fourth.
“We just start self-inflicting, you know, punishment on ourselves,” Auriemma said. “There’s a point in time now, this late in the season, where you have to really find something else inside you because your tank is running dry almost. So you got to really, really, really mentally, you know, get yourself in a place where you can still function.”
The Huskies’ woes were immediate on Tuesday. They missed their first three shots and had two turnovers in the game’s first two minutes. UConn ended the first quarter 4 of 14 from the floor while St. John’s was 8 of 20, including 4 of 7 from deep.
While the Huskies’ defense began to pick up in the second quarter, their offense still fell flat. It didn’t help that Mühl spent the half’s final five minutes on the bench with three fouls.
At halftime, UConn had given up 12 points on seven turnovers and was behind on the rebound battle 2517.
“St. John’s, from the opening tip, played like their life depends on every game for the rest of the season,” Auriemma said. “And it would have been a sin if they lost that game, to be honest with you. Because they played so well and so hard and they played like they were the better team and they were.”
The Huskies will travel to DePaul for their final road game of the regular season on Saturday (2 p.m. / FOX) looking to win out their final two games to not let Tuesday’s loss bring them down in the conference standings.