Johnnies Rally to Victory vs No. 6/7 UConn

QUEENS, N.Y. (Jan. 15, 2023) – Joel Soriano scored 13 of his team-high 19 points in the second half to help power a late surge that sent the St. John’s men’s basketball team off with an 85-74 road victory over No. 6/7 Connecticut (15-4, 4-4 BIG EAST) on Sunday inside the XL Center in Hartford.

With the win, St. John’s (13-6, 3-5 BIG EAST) snapped the Huskies’ 15-game home win streak dating back to last season. It marked the Red Storm’s first road win over a top-10 opponent since defeating No. 10/9 Marquette in Milwaukee on Feb. 5, 2019. Sunday’s victory was also the program’s first over a team ranked No. 6 or better in the AP Poll since downing No. 1 Villanova on Feb. 7, 2018 at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

St. John’s unleashed a balanced scoring attack on the Huskies that featured six Johnnies posting double figures. The Red Storm shot 51.7 percent (30-58 FG) from the field, including 62.2 percent (28-45 FG) inside the 3-point arc.

Soriano recorded his team-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor. The senior center from Yonkers also grabbed 13 boards for his Division I-leading 16th double-double of the season. Soriano’s 16 double-doubles are the most in a season since Zendon Hamilton tallied 16 of his own in the 1995-96 season.

Posh Alexander and AJ Storr each added 14 points while Dylan Addae-Wusu finished with 12 points. The trio of Johnnies shot a combined 15-for-17 (88.2 percent) from the free-throw line. Rafael Pinzon (12 points) and Andre Curbelo (10 points) were a spark off the bench for the Red Storm, combining for 22 of the team’s 26 bench points. Curbelo shot 5-for-12 from the field in 21 minutes of action. Pinzon was 4-for-7 from the floor and buried a 3-pointer.

The first half was a back-and-forth affair with neither team leading by more than eight points. St. John’s evened the contest at intermission after David Jones buried a jumper with just seconds remaining to knot the game at 38.

The Red Storm came out firing on all cylinders to open the second half, hitting 11 of its first 15 shots. Soriano got going just over five minutes into the latter stanza, as he scored four-straight points to push St. John’s out to a 54-47 advantage. From there, Curbelo stepped up scoring the team’s next eight points to help the Johnnies maintain a two-possession advantage.

The Huskies got within four points of St. John’s on two occasions down the stretch, but could not get closer. UConn’s Jordan Hawkins buried his fourth 3-pointer of the game at the 11:21 mark to make it a 60-56 ballgame. However, Curbelo answered 13 seconds later with a driving layup through traffic.

After Hawkins’ putback layup at 7:54 made it a 64-60 ballgame, the Red Storm answered with a 9-0 run over the next four minutes to pull away. Soriano capped the offensive surge with a mid-range jumper that put St. John’s on top 73-60 at 3:55.

The Red Storm led by as many as 16 points in the final two minutes of action.

St. John’s committed only two turnovers in the second half, while forcing UConn into 12 mishaps in the stanza. In total, the Huskies had 21 turnovers to St. John’s 10. The Red Storm scored 22 points off UConn’s turnovers.

Hawkins led UConn with a game-high 31 points on 9-for-16 shooting. Adama Sanogo recorded 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Huskies.

Addae-Wusu was responsible for four of the team’s seven steals in St. John’s second road win at UConn in the last three years. Sunday’s victory was also the first for the Johnnies at XL Center, formerly the Hartford Civic Center, since a 77-62 win on Feb. 29, 1988.

St. John’s makes its 2023 debut on its home court inside Madison Square Garden on Friday when the Johnnies host Villanova. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.