NEW YORK -- A.J. Price wanted to rebound from two bad
performances, so St. John's took the fall.
Price scored 15 points and freshman Stanley Robinson added 13
and 12 rebounds as No. 22 Connecticut posted a 68-59 Big East
Conference victory over St. John's.
Freshman center Hasheem Thabeet had 12 points, 10 rebounds and
seven blocks and Jeff Adrien added nine points for the Huskies
(12-3, 1-2 Big East), who avoided a third straight loss for the
first time since January 2001.
Price was just 2-of-8 from the field but made 10-of-12 free
throws for Connecticut, which shot 50 percent (22-of-44). Price
had tallied just seven points in the Huskies' two consecutive
losses this past week.
UConn coach Jim Calhoun earn his 746th victory, tying legendary
Kansas coach Phog Allen for 12th place all-time.
Calhoun is also two wins away from capturing his 500th win at
Connecticut, which has won six in a row vs. St. John's.
"I thought that Hasheem had his best game in uniform and I
thought A.J. Price, who was about as close to the A.J. Price I
know, was very good," Calhoun said.
Calhoun left the bench with just over 10 minutes to play in the
contest with an upset stomach and did not return until there
were 55 seconds left to play.
"I'm not sure if it was the fish I had today or the
officiating," Calhoun said jokingly. "I just had to leave for a
few minutes. I was able to watch it in the locker room and
that made me even more sick after we started throwing the ball
away and not boxing out."
It marked the 17th time in his tenure at Connecticut that he had
missed part or all of a game due to illness and the first time
since Jan. 16, 2006, at Syracuse.
The Huskies, who shot 59 percent in the second half and made
6-of-11 from 3-point range while tallying 11 blocks, improved to
9-8 all-time against the Red Storm in Madison Square Garden.
"Thabeet was real active down low," Red Storm guard Eugene
Lawrence said. "He was altering shots. We were still able to
get the ball to the rim but we just didn't score."
"I give our kids a great deal of credit," Calhoun said. "For
two days we worked only on zone defense. The zone was a major
part of getting us the lead. Tonight, I think we had 14 zone
defenses and for us that is very unusual."
Aaron Spears scored 11 points and Anthony Mason Jr. and Avery
Patterson each had 10 for the Red Storm (10-6, 1-2), who shot
just 33 percent (23-of-69) and has lost seven straight to ranked
opponents.
"We didn't get off to a great start," St. John's coach Norm
Roberts said. "We got the ball in the right positions, we just
didn't make some shots. We went to the basket hard, but some
shots just didn't fall for us early. It allowed them to get a
lead. We battled back but we couldn't overcome the lead."