UConn men hold off St. John’s for 69-65 win in Big East home opener

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HARTFORD -– As the final seconds ticked off the clock, clinching a hard-fought 69-65 win over St. John’s in a sold-out XL Center Saturday night, Dan Hurley turned to those sitting behind the team’s bench and wished them a Merry Christmas.

“We saved Christmas for a lot of people in Connecticut and for ourselves today,” he said. “A loss here tonight would’ve been a lot of doom and gloom for a lot of people.”

Down two, St. John’s missed a pair of free throws with 17.7 seconds left on the clock and Tristen Newton, who led the Huskies with 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists, was fouled and tacked one more onto the lead. The Johnnies attempted to tie the game with a 3-pointer with eight seconds to go, also off the mark, and Hassan Diarra sealed the game at the foul line.

The Huskies came back from a six-point halftime deficit and held off a late run from the Red Storm, who took the lead around the four-minute mark. It is the program’s first single-digit margin of victory since last year’s Big East Tournament win over Providence and first win by less than five points since beating Villanova, 71-69, on Feb. 22, 2022.

“We proved that we can win the beauty pageant, when the game is not allowed to be as physical as these games are,” Hurley said. “These Big East games, man, are so physical. It’s gonna be that way for the next 18 games and I thought we showed just a tremendous resolve and resilience with how we responded today. I thought we showed a championship response to how we played (against Seton Hall Wednesday).”

Cam Spencer finished with 15 points on 5 of 9 shooting – including two momentum-grabbing 3-pointers in the second half – and Samson Johnson had a career-high 16 with four rebounds and a block in his second collegiate start. The Huskies got nine points from Alex Karaban and eight, all in the second half, from Stephon Castle, who made a handful of critical plays down the stretch despite having four fouls.

UConn (11-2, 1-1 Big East) got…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/uconn-men-hold-off-st-034200445.html

Author : Hartford Courant

Publish date : 2023-12-24 03:42:00

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