St. John’s, UConn ready for third round of heavyweight fight
NEW YORK -- Throughout the season, it seemed inevitable that Big East heavyweights St. John's and UConn would meet to decide the conference tournament championship.
On Saturday night, the highly anticipated encounter will occur at what will be a packed Madison Square Garden when top-seeded St. John's (27-6) and second-seeded UConn (29-4) square off for the third time this season.
St. John's forced 15 turnovers and saw Zuby Ejiofor total 21 points and 10 rebounds in an 81-72 home win over the Huskies on Feb. 6.
The Huskies rolled to a 72-40 win in Hartford on Feb. 25, when the Red Storm missed their final 24 shots and did not get a basket for the final 17 1/2 minutes.
"I just think both programs have really pushed each other the whole year," UConn coach Dan Hurley said Friday. "We're a 29-win team, they're a 27-win team. Two of the best teams in the country.
UConn is ranked sixth in the nation and St. John's is 13th.
"Obviously it's going to be a death match for the Big East championship, but also, you know, both of us have really delivered for this league in a year where this league needs a game like this tomorrow night that everyone that's a basketball fan's going to be dialed into," Hurley said. "So, yeah, it's exciting. You knew there was going to be a third round, and here we are."
St. John's, which has won five games in a row, is attempting to win consecutive titles for the first time in school history. The Red Storm reached the championship game in back-to-back seasons in 1985 and 1986 and split title games with UConn in 1999 and 2000.
St. John's is attempting to win its fifth title in seven tries and second since 2000 after earning an 82-66 victory over Creighton last year.
The only starter from the 2025 title game is Ejiofor, the Big East Player of the Year. He has 41 total points in the Red Storm's tournament victories over Providence and Seton Hall. On Friday, in a 78-68 semifinal win over pesky Seton Hall, Ejiofor scored 20 points in a game in which St. John's never trailed and led by as many as 19.
"We're playing for a championship," St. John's coach Rick Pitino said. "We played for the regular season as if our life was on the line. We're going to play tomorrow as if our life is on the line. Then we'll worry about the (NCAA) tournament."
The Red Storm advanced by getting key contributions from Joson Sanon, Dillon Mitchell and Bryce Hopkins. Sanon scored 15 off the bench, while Mitchell and Hopkins finished with 13 apiece and combined for 13 rebounds.
"For us new guys who weren't part of the team last year, we want it just as bad, and we have the same type of chip on our shoulder, like we're defending it like if we won it last year with them," Mitchell said. "So it's just about coming together, staying as one, going out there to compete for 40 minutes."
UConn is in the title game for the second time in three seasons. The Huskies are 8-3 in their previous trips to the championship game and tied with Georgetown for the most conference titles in Big East history.
The Huskies ended the regular season with a dismal 68-62 loss at Marquette last Saturday but responded nicely with double-digit wins over Xavier and Georgetown while never trailing in either game.
UConn followed its 93-68 victory over the Musketeers by keeping Georgetown at bay in a 67-51 victory Friday night.
The Huskies scored their most points this season in a regulation conference win on Thursday and saw big games from Solo Ball and Tarris Reed Jr. On Friday, UConn got a huge performance from Braylon Mullins to offset quiet showings from Ball and Reed.
Mullins scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half. For the game, he was 8-of-17 shooting and took all four of UConn's free throws. Mullins finished four shy of his career high and made 12 of 26 shots from the floor in his first two tournament games after a 4-of-15 outing at Marquette.
"I'm so grateful to be in the position, and I think we're all grateful to be going into the Big East championship game," Mullins said. "Being a freshman, there's nowhere else I would want to be."