{"id":1086,"date":"2026-02-07T22:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2026-02-07T22:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:54:14","slug":"st-johns-gets-key-win-over-uconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/?p=1086","title":{"rendered":"St. John\u2019s Gets Key Win Over UConn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New York, NY – Two of the Big East\u2019s finest met for a battle in the mecca with #3 UConn<\/strong> coming down to face the surging #22 St. John\u2019s Red Storm<\/strong>. The game was very back and forth with both teams playing with great energy and trying to execute their style of play. St. John\u2019s would struggle to be efficient but UConn had issues of their own with taking care of the ball and continuing to send the Johnnies to the charity stripe. Both teams had an extremely balanced box score in the first half leading to a tie at 39 between two of the hottest teams in all of college basketball. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the second half began, UConn would continue to have struggles against St. John\u2019s intensity on the defensive end and their physicality on the offensive end. The Huskies had 15 turnovers on the night, Silas Demary Jr.<\/strong> had nine of those turnovers. St. John\u2019s scored 20 points off those UConn turnovers and they did a great job of just pressuring ball handlers all night long. No one was more emblematic of this than Dylan Darling<\/strong> who was just a pest and completely shifted the game in St. John\u2019s favor as soon as he checked in. Although we can\u2019t overlook the usual dominance from the Red Storm frontcourt trio of Zuby Ejiofor, Dillon Mitchell<\/strong>, and Bryce Hopkins<\/strong> combining for 50 of the 81 total team points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ejiofor<\/strong> continues to impress and show versatility as he had a near triple-double of 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists. The Huskies would make small pushes throughout the half even cutting the St. John\u2019s lead down to one. However, they would not be able to finish the job as St. John\u2019s would take down UConn 81-72 ending the Huskies 18-game winning streak and extending their own winning streak to 9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. John\u2019s had a bunch of standout performances but it\u2019s hard to dismiss Ejiofor\u2019s <\/strong>two way impact and how he continues to impress every single game. Obviously everyone knows he has the motor, the physicality, and lives in the paint but his ability to read defenses is something to behold. He\u2019s very good at seeing the back line of the defense when he gets the ball at the free throw line extended. Especially since opposing defenses are so keyed in on him as a finisher at the rim this leads to him showing off his playmaking, finding guys like Mitchell and Hopkins for easy points. Ejiofor\u2019s performances are becoming inevitable night in and night out. At this trajectory he\u2019s on his way to being recognized as one of the best players to ever put on a St. John\u2019s uniform and having that #24 in the rafters one day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the Huskies didn\u2019t get the result they wanted as a team several of their players had some solid individual performances. Alex Karaban<\/strong> is a true veteran for this UConn team and he showed it last night in a big game vs. a conference rival. Karaban finished the night with 17 points and is just so good as an off ball offensive threat. He leverages his shooting ability at such a high level and isn\u2019t afraid to take the big shots when the team needs it. The range he has is also something you want to see if you are looking at him as an NBA prospect, he can let it fly from distance and on the move as well. Karaban may not be a high level athlete but he is capable of beating his defender on closeouts and getting to the rim for some nice finishes also. Defensively there can be some question marks due to his lack of overall athleticism and foot speed but he has the body to be serviceable on that end of the floor. It will definitely be interesting watching how the rest of his senior year plays out to determine if he will be able to get his third national title in four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was written by Jordan Amadeo, a correspondent and scout for <\/em><\/a>NetScouts Basketball<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> You can follow us on <\/em>Instagram<\/a>, or on <\/em>twitter.<\/em> <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are looking for those interested in our <\/em>basketball scout apprenticeship program<\/a>. For information <\/em>contact us <\/em><\/a>and forward your resume.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York, NY – Two of the Big East\u2019s finest met for a battle in the mecca with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[18,19,73,155,187],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","tag-big-east-hoops","tag-college-basketball","tag-netscouts-basketball","tag-st-johns-red-storm","tag-uconn-huskies"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MSG1.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MSG1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Carl Berman","author_link":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/?author=1"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/netscoutsbasketball.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}