Connecticut at St. John’s


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The tenth-ranked Connecticut Huskies are set to do battle Thursday night in Madison Square Garden with the pesky St. John’s Red Storm. The Huskies have victories over four teams that are ranked inside the top 12 this season and have clearly been the surprise of the Big East conference. The Red Storm have arguably played the most difficult schedule in the land this season, and it doesn’t get any easier tonight. The odds for this contest show us a line of Connecticut -1 over St. John’s with a total set of 132.5 points.

Connecticut (18-4, 6-4) earned their way up as high as No. 5 in the AP poll back on January 24th. Following a win over Marquette their next time out, the Huskies would drop consecutive games to then-No. 23 Louisville and No. 17 Syracuse. With those losses, the Huskies sat at 4-4 against Top 25 teams this season. They have played a daunting schedule as well, and were able to rebound nicely last week against an unranked opponent. UConn rallied from a 56-46 deficit with only eight minutes to play at Seton Hall Saturday. They would go on to outscore the Pirates 15-3 the rest of the way, earning a fourth straight road victory.

The Huskies desperately need to get leading scorer Kemba Walker back on track. Walker still sits tops in the Big East in points per game (23.2), but has gone cold over his last six games. During that stretch, the junior guard is scoring 16.8 points on 31.8 percent shooting. Though he has struggled, Walker never hesitates to take big shots down the stretch and has single-handedly won a few games for the Huskies this season. He connected on a trio of 3-pointers against Seton Hall which were the only shots made by Connecticut from the perimeter. That includes the go-ahead 3-pointer he hit with 2:32 remaining. Freshman Jeremy Lamb has picked up his game to make up for Walker’s struggles, scoring 17.8 points per game over his last six contests.

St. John’s (13-9, 5-5) beat the Huskies in the Big East Tournament last season to put an end to their nine-game losing streak. That 73-51 win ended Connecticut’s chances of reaching the NCAA Tournament, and sent them to the NIT. The Red Storm held Walker to just 4-of-17 shooting in that game. St. John’s also earned a trip to the NIT last year, but they have bigger expectations this season in head coach Steve Lavin’s first year on the job. They have positioned themselves well thanks to home wins over a trio of Top 15 opponents in Duke, Notre Dame and Georgetown.

The Red Storm’s 93-78 win over Duke was a great way to finish off what was the toughest stretch of games for any team in the country. It represented their eighth straight game against a ranked opponent. St. John’s would go on to beat Rutgers in their next contest 58-56 at home despite shooting just 36.7 percent from the floor. They wouldn’t be so fortunate last time out, losing to UCLA in Lavin’s return to coach against his former team. Dwight Hardy had a huge game with a career-high 32 points, but it wasn’t enough as the Bruins won 66-59. St. John’s was not aggressive, shooting just seven free throws compared to UCLA’s 41 attempts from the charity stripe. The Red Storm are averaging just 12.6 free-throw attempts in six road games since January 1st, while attempting an average of 27.0 in five home games over that same time period. Expect them to be more aggressive tonight.

Projected Score at BetOnline: Connecticut 67 – St. John’s 66

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