No. 6 UConn and No. 13 St. John’s set for round 3 to decide Big East Tournament

NEW YORK (AP) — Sixth-ranked UConn and No. 13 St. John’s are ready for the rubber match. This time, with a Big East championship at stake.

After dominating conference play and splitting their two regular-season matchups, the original league rivals are poised to square off again in a highly anticipated tournament title game.

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Neither team has trailed through two rounds in New York City this week.

“Two of the better teams in college basketball — Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. You can’t ask for much more,” Red Storm guard Dylan Darling said.

And with all due respect to the rest of the conference, it felt inevitable all along.

“You knew there was going to be a third round, and here we are,” Huskies coach Dan Hurley said.

Defending champion St. John’s was picked atop the preseason coaches’ poll, UConn placed second — and no other school received a first-place vote.

The first time they met this season, Big East Player of the Year Zuby Ejiofor had 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists as the Johnnies won 81-72 on Feb. 6 before a roaring crowd at The Garden, ending an 18-game winning streak for the Huskies.

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Less than three weeks later, a fired-up and determined UConn squad answered at home with a 72-40 blowout that stopped the Red Storm’s 13-game winning streak. St. John’s shot an embarrassing 20% from the floor, missing its last 24 field goal attempts over the final 17:27 as the Huskies romped to their most- lopsided victory in series history.

“I thought we demoralized them a little bit,” Hurley said afterward.

It was by far the largest defeat for the Johnnies in three seasons under Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, and their fewest points in a game since a 66-40 loss at Notre Dame in March 2013.

Tarris Reed Jr. had 20 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks for UConn, outplaying Ejiofor badly in their matchup of All-Big East big men.

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After that, the teams remained neck-and-neck for first place until the Huskies lost 68-62 at struggling Marquette last weekend, costing them a share of the regular-season crown that instead went solely to St. John’s by one game at…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/no-6-uconn-no-13-033449742.html

Author : MIKE FITZPATRICK and STEPHEN WHYNO

Publish date : 2026-03-14 03:34:00

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