The showdown at PeoplesBank Arena on February 25, 2026, was billed as a clash of Big East titans, but by the final buzzer, only one team looked ready for March. UConn’s men’s basketball team, ranked sixth in the nation, delivered a resounding 72-40 victory over No. 15 St. John’s, snapping the Red Storm’s 13-game winning streak and keeping their regular-season championship hopes very much alive. For the Huskies, it was a night of redemption, dominance, and a little bit of history.
From the opening tip, UConn played like a team with everything to prove. The Huskies had dropped three straight to St. John’s, including a stinging defeat at Madison Square Garden earlier in the month. But this time, the script flipped. With the home crowd roaring, UConn established its authority early and never looked back, jumping out to a 9-2 lead and suffocating the Johnnies with relentless defense and physical play inside.
"There’s not a whole lot for me to complain about," UConn head coach Dan Hurley said after the game. "I think (there was) just a lot of soul-searching by the group during that stretch that started at MSG where our defense kind of tanked. I think you saw today its capabilities when we’re dialed in."
The tone was set by senior center Tarris Reed Jr., who delivered what Hurley called "as good as a center’s played for us in a game." Reed finished with a career-best 20 points, 11 rebounds, six blocks—tying his personal high—and two steals, completely outplaying St. John’s star Zuby Ejiofor. The preseason Big East Player of the Year, Ejiofor had torched UConn for 21 points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists in their last meeting. This time, Reed held him to just six points and four boards.
“The thing with Tarris is like, he can repeat that. And if he repeats that, we’re not gonna lose many more games the rest of the way. And it’s repeatable what he was doing. He wasn’t hitting like fadeaway, dream shake shots, he was just a guy with a presence at the rim as a deterrent and his ball-screen defense, and his rebounding, his post position and his passing out of traps. If he does that, this team’s gonna have a great rest of the way,” Hurley remarked, clearly pleased with his big man’s performance.
Alex Karaban, who wrapped up his Hartford career with a remarkable 31-1 record in the city, added 14 points and five rebounds. Solo Ball chipped in 11 points and four assists, while freshman Braylon Mullins knocked down a key three-pointer to help fuel UConn’s early run. The Huskies’ Big Three were in full control, and the supporting cast did their part to keep the pressure on St. John’s throughout the night.
St. John’s, meanwhile, looked nothing like the team that had reeled off 13 straight wins—their longest streak since the legendary 1984-85 Final Four campaign. The Red Storm struggled to find any offensive rhythm, missing 16 of their first 20 shots and enduring two brutal scoring droughts of 7:23 and 10:46. By halftime, the Johnnies trailed by 15, and it only got worse from there.
Joson Sanon led St. John’s with 10 points, all of them coming in the last five and a half minutes of the first half. After the break, he was held scoreless. Zuby Ejiofor, so dominant in the first meeting, was limited to just six points on 2-of-5 shooting. Bryce Hopkins, who started the scoring for St. John’s, finished with eight points but was just 3-for-15 from the field. Simply put, nothing came easy for Rick Pitino’s squad.
UConn’s defense was stifling. The Huskies held St. John’s to a paltry 19.6 percent shooting from the field—just 11 made shots on 56 attempts. In the second half, the Johnnies went ice-cold, hitting just 2-of-28 shots (7.1 percent) and missing their final 24 field goal attempts. The result? The fewest points ever scored by a Rick Pitino-coached St. John’s team and the largest margin of victory for UConn in the history of the series.
“It’s all on me,” Pitino told reporters outside the locker room. “I’m very disappointed in our performance, offensively especially, sharing the ball, moving the ball. So it’s all on me. We’re still playing for a league championship, it doesn’t matter whether you lose by one or 40. The league championship’s still at stake. Obviously we’ve got to make our corrections and move on.”
The numbers tell the story of UConn’s dominance. The Huskies outscored St. John’s 42-12 in the paint and 14-0 in transition. They held a 41-37 edge on the boards and forced the Red Storm into just two turnovers, while committing only five themselves—a season low. UConn’s ability to finish at the rim, control the glass, and protect the ball was the difference from their February 7 loss at MSG.
For the Huskies, the win was especially sweet as it secured their third-straight perfect 8-0 season in Hartford. The all-time series now stands at 40-35 in favor of St. John’s, but UConn’s emphatic statement has certainly shifted the momentum in this burgeoning rivalry.
After the game, Reed described the emotional release he felt when he exited to a standing ovation: “It was just so much energy, emotion, the hard days, the days I wanted to quit, the days coach was yelling at me, the days where I played good and I’m still getting yelled at and chewed out. Just such energy. I had to let it out.”
Despite the lopsided result, the Big East regular-season title race is far from over. With both teams now tied atop the conference with two losses each, St. John’s still controls its own destiny thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker. If the Johnnies win out, they’ll at least share the league title and claim the top seed at next month’s Big East Tournament. UConn, meanwhile, will be rooting for a St. John’s stumble or a shakeup elsewhere in the standings to open the door for a No. 1 seed.
Alex Karaban summed up the Huskies’ mindset moving forward: “Ever since we lost to Creighton, Coach emphasized that these are like playoff games for us. The urgency was there for ‘Nova, the urgency was there for St. John’s and the urgency’s got to continue for Seton Hall on Saturday. We know what’s at stake, we know what we’re competing for.”
With the postseason looming and both teams eyeing a deep run, this latest chapter in the UConn-St. John’s rivalry has set the stage for a thrilling finish. For now, the Huskies can savor a dominant performance and a little bit of history, while the Red Storm regroup and look to bounce back in their pursuit of Big East glory.