St. John’s falls to No. 1 UConn at Madison Square Garden despite halftime lead

Upset-minded St. John’s traded baskets with No. 1 UConn in the first half and led seven minutes into the second on Saturday, but in the end, the signature win of the Rick Pitino era continued to elude the Red Storm.

The defending-NCAA-champion Huskies (20-2) pulled away after halftime in their 77-64 win at a sold-out Madison Square Garden to complete a regular-season sweep of St. John’s.

Connecticut’s Cam Spencer scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the second half. His go-ahead 3-pointer with 12:55 remaining put UConn up for good. Stephon Castle added 21 points for the Huskies.

The loss dropped St. John’s to 0-4 against ranked teams and 13-9 overall in its first season since the title-winning Pitino took over as head coach. The Johnnies fell to 5-6 in Big East play and have lost five of their last six games.

St. John’s led at halftime, 37-36, behind the heroics of senior point guard Daniss Jenkins, whose 13 points led all scorers at the break. Jenkins made a 3-pointer on St. Johns’ opening possession and began 3-for-3 from deep. Jenkins cooled off after halftime, however, and finished with 19 points.

Less successful in the first half was the Red Storm’s other star, 6-11 center Joel Soriano, who struggled to get anything going against a towering UConn frontcourt occupied by 7-2 sophomore Donovan Clingan and 6-10 backup Samson Johnson.

Clingan blocked Soriano’s first attempt about a minute into the game. Soriano later fumbled a bounce pass from Jenkins as he rolled to the basket. Soriano’s put-back dunk at the 6:31 mark accounted for his only points and lone rebound of the first half.

Soriano, who entered Saturday averaging a team-high 16.6 points per game, matched a season-low with six. It marked the second time this season Soriano failed to score in double-figures.

Given UConn’s size advantage, St. John’s came out looking to shoot. Three-point specialist Brady Dunlap made a rare start. The Red Storm began the game 4-of-6 from deep.

Connecticut delivered the first big blow Saturday, answering Jenkins’ initial 3-pointer with a 14-2 run. But St. John’s punched back with a 12-2 run of their own, during which Dunlap drained a three-pointer and Jenkins made two more.

A long two-pointer by Nahiem Alleyne — who transferred to St. John’s from UConn after last season — put the Red Storm up by one at halftime. His go-ahead basket marked the 12th lead change of a first half that also saw eight ties.

Despite Saturday’s loss, St. John’s remains in striking distance of its first NCAA Tournament berth in five years. Even before Saturday’s showdown with top-ranked UConn, the Red Storm had played what ESPN metrics found to be the 10th-toughest schedule in the country and what KenPom rated as the 11th-hardest.

St. John’s lost by four points on the road in its first game meeting with the Huskies — then ranked No. 5 — in December. It suffered one-point losses to No. 22 Creighton and No. 17 Marquette last month. Still, the Red Storm have often held their own in the loaded Big East, earning quality wins thus far over Xavier, Butler and Providence and sweeping Villanova.

Entering Saturday, ESPN projected St. John’s as a nine seed in the NCAA Tournament. KenPom ranked the Johnnies as the 36th-best team in the nation, while NCAA’s NET rankings put St. John’s at 38th.

St. John’s fell to 2-7 against Quadrant 1 opponents but is 5-1 against Quad 2; 2-1 against Quad 3; and 4-0 against Quad 4.