UConn Quotes | St. John's Quotes | Box Score

By SEAN BRENNAN
BIGEAST.com
 
You would think after the season they have enjoyed so far this season that UConn would be a happy bunch of Huskies at this time of year.
 
What’s to complain about? The Huskies were coming off a season that saw them win the national championship and seemed to be picking up where they left off last year with a stellar campaign in 2023-24. In fact, UConn is in the midst of an historic season. The Huskies set a new conference record when they won 18 BIG EAST regular-season games this season which broke the old record of 17 set by the 1995-96 UConn team, the 2011-12 Syracuse Orange and last year’s Marquette Golden Eagles team.
 
What’s more the Huskies did to the BIG EAST postseason awards season what “Oppenheimer” did at the Academy Awards. Just to recap: Both Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer landed on the All-BIG EAST First Team, Stephon Castle earned conference Freshman of the Year honors after setting a conference record by being named Freshman of the Week 11 times, breaking Carmelo Anthony’s old record, Hassan Diarra snagged the BIG EAST Sixth Man Award, Donovan Clingan earned All-Conference Honorable Mention honors and Dan Hurley walked away with the BIG EAST Coach of the Year award.
 
Oh, and they spent a large chunk of the season residing in the penthouse of the AP Top 25 poll.
 
Still, there were a couple of things on the Huskies’ To-Do List they still needed to accomplish this season. They checked off the first one on March 3 with a win over Seton Hall which gave UConn its first BIG EAST regular-season title since 1999. But there was still one more goal to achieve before the Huskies headed off to the NCAA Tournament to defend their title.
 
They wanted to win the BIG EAST Tournament championship - and they wanted it badly. The Huskies have won the tournament seven times in their history, the second-most of any program in the BIG EAST behind Georgetown’s eight titles. But it hasn’t won one since 2011. (That’s 91 years in Huskie years, by the way).
 
So it was time.
 
And now UConn (30-3) stands just one win away from checking that last item off its list thanks to the Huskies dynamic duo of Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer. The UConn tandem combined for 45 points and 18 assists as the Huskies fended off a gutsy Red Storm squad with a 95-90 victory at a thunderous Madison Square Garden. It was the highest scoring semifinal game in BIG EAST Tournament history.
 
Saturday night will mark UConn’s first trip to the tournament final since they rejoined the BIG EAST for the 2020-21 season.
 
“As a competitor these are the environments that you want to play in,” Spencer said. “It’s a high-level basketball game, working towards something that we’ve worked for all year. The BIG EAST championship is something that we want to get.”
 
High-level was one way to put it. Deafening would be another as the Garden was rocking from opening tip to final horn as the two ancient rivals battled for 40 brutal minutes. It was a game that was hyped once both teams won their respective quarterfinal games to set up Friday’s matchup. And it did not disappoint.
 
“Awesome atmosphere. (I) thought it lived up to everything that people hoped for. The emotions, the intensity, the shot making,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “It was just a fun game to be part of.”
 
After going into halftime up just 52-47, the Huskies were looking to put the Johnnies away in the second half the same way they ran away from Xavier in their quarterfinal round victory Thursday night. Only St. John’s wouldn’t go away. The Red Storm fell behind by as many as 14 points (73-59) with 12:28 remaining in the game. But instead of wilting and calling it a night, the Johnnies hung in, even pulling within 91-85 after a layup by Glenn Taylor Jr. with 35 seconds to play. 
 
But despite St. John’s tenacity, you got the feeling the Huskies would never let this one slip away. And that was due mostly to Newton, who scored 25 points, and Spencer, who added 20. Whenever St. John’s started to believe they could make a run - and with the Red Storm faithful trying to will a comeback victory - it was Newtown or Spencer who would come up with a big bucket or place the perfect pass that would result in a bucket by Alex Karaban (14 points) or Hassan Diarra (10) to help quash any Johnnies’ comeback hopes.
 
Now just one more win, against either Marquette or Providence, and the Huskies’ will achieve what they couldn’t in their magical season of a year ago.
 
“UConn is an historic program, home of a lot of championships and having the national championship last year was great,” Newton said. “But we’ve been struggling all year to win multiple championships and this is one of those stops. Throughout the (last) two years we’ve been making a lot of history. So I guess tomorrow after the game we’ll try to make more history.”
 
While UConn looks to make history this weekend, St. John’s will be looking simply to see their name come up on the Selection Sunday Show after a terrific turnaround season for the Red Storm (20-13).
 
“These guys played their tails off,” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said. “Real proud of them. We were hoping for a BIG EAST crown but the other team was better than us. We played them three times to the wire and they  find a way to win.” 
 
St. John’s, which was paced by Daniss Jenkins (game-high 27 points) and Jordan Dingle (19) will now gather on Sunday to see what the basketball future holds for the Johnnies.
 
“”I want to see who we are going to play, obviously, and prepare and get ready,” Pitino said. “Jordan came here to play in the tournament, going to get his wishes. We’ll see who we’re going to play. We’ll see what’s going to go on.”