No. 1 UConn tops St. John’s in Hurley-Pitino grudge match: ‘We’re all trying to kill each other’

NEW YORK — There may be bad blood between Rick Pitino and Dan Hurley, but Hurley is piling up all the victories.

The Jersey City native and former Seton Hall guard notched his third straight victory over the Naismith Hall of Fame coach when No. 1 UConn won its 10th straight, 77-64, over St. John’s before a sold-out crowd of 19,812 at Madison Square Garden. UConn’s last loss was a 15-point defeat at Seton Hall on Dec. 20.

Without starting forward Alex Karaban (ankle), Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer scored 23 points while making 5-of-7 from deep and freshman Steph Castle went for a career-high 21 points for the Huskies (20-2, 10-1 Big East). Tristen Newton flirted with a triple-double in tallying 18 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists. UConn outscored St. John’s 41-27 after trailing by one at the intermission. Even without Karaban and with 7-foot-2 sophomore Donovan Clingan battling foul trouble, UConn dominated on the boards, 38-23.

“Obviously thrilled with the win,” Hurley said. “All things considered, I didn’t imagine we could play as tough as we did without Alex, he’s like the brain center of the program. To out-rebound that team by 15 just speaks to how we showed up today and the edge that we brought.”

He added: “We expected to win this game….We came here to win.”

The crowd — equally split between the fan bases of the two teams — included the St. John’s 1998-99 Elite Eight team led by Erick Barkley, Felipe Lopez and Metta Sandiford-Artest, the former Ron Artest.

UConn beat St. John’s twice that season, including by 19 points in the Big East Tournament championship game, and continued their winning ways with their second win this season over the Johnnies. Hurley also beat Pitino and Iona in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year in Albany.

“They’re better than us and those key plays not only when we’re down 3 or 4 but when it goes to 8 or 10 against a team that shoots free throws like this, you’re going to lose the game,” Pitino said.

“They’re better than us, they’ve beaten us twice…They’re the No. 1 team in the country and we hope to get there some day but they’re better than us.”

Asked if there was brewing rivalry between the two teams, Pitino added: “I don’t think we’re anywhere close to being a rival with them….It may become a rivalry some day, but it’s not now.”

Entering the game much of the talk was about the rivalry between Pitino and Hurley and the two programs.

“I don’t think we’re going to become best friends this summer, but I respect the hell out of him,” Hurley said Saturday of Pitino.

On Friday in an interview with Chris Russo, he said: “We’re all — all — we’re trying to kill each other out there, especially, you’re talking about conference play, and you’re talking about Big East conference play.”

Asked about the rivalry with Pitino, Hurley added: “There’s parts of all of us, whether it’s recruiting or things that go on in a game with out different coaches that have different antics, there’s things that rub each other the wrong way constantly. It’s a vicious, vicious business that’s gotten more intense. There may be some coaches that are better at faking that we all really like other and it’s a Big East brotherhood. But we’re trying to kill each other.”

Want to bet on College Basketball?

See the best NJ Sports Betting sites

The Red Storm seized a 37-36 halftime lead behind 13 points from Iona transfer Daniss Jenkins.

UConn used a 17-5 run to turn a 46-45 deficit into a 62-51 lead amid chants of “Let’s go, Huskies.”

A 3-pointer by Spencer put the Huskies up 69-54 with 6:40 left. Spencer also tallied five rebounds, three assists, three steals and two turnovers.

Jenkins scored a game-high 19 for St. John’s (13-9, 5-6), which has now lost five of six games but remains in the NCAA Tournament mix. R.J. Luis Jr. added 10 points and Chris Ledlum 10.

UConn shot 20-of-22 from the foul line, while the Red Storm was 14-of-21.

“I think Daniss is playing a high level, unfortunately no one else is,” Pitino said.

Said Jenkins: “We’re not learning and we’re not getting better….It’s just executing and being a good fundamentally sound basketball team and we’re not that right now so that’s why we keep losing a lot of tough games.”

Going forward, UConn looks like a team that be the first to repeat since Billy Donovan’s Florida teams in 2006-7.

“We haven’t lost a game this year at full health,” Hurley said, “and I think our confidence is pretty high.”

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting us with a subscription.

Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com.