HARTFORD, Conn. — Joel Soriano scored 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to help St. John's beat No. 6 UConn 85-74 on Sunday, to give the Red Storm their first win over the Huskies in Hartford in 35 years.
The last time the Red Storm won at the now named XL Center, was Feb. 29, 1988. The win was also the program's first road win over a top-10 opponent since beating Marquette on Feb. 5, 2019.
St. John's took advantage of 21 turnovers by UConn by scoring 22 points off them and also outscored the Huskies 44-28 in the paint.
Soriano's double-double was his 16th of the season. AJ Storr and Posh Alexander each scored 14 points for the Red Storm.
St. John's (13-6, 3-5 Big East) has now won two consecutive after a five-game losing skid.
Dylan Addae-Wusu and Rafael Pinzon each had 12 points for St. John's and Andre Curbelo had 10.
UConn's Jordan Hawkins scored a career-high 31 points to led all scorers. Alex Karaban had 16 points and Adama Sanogo added 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Huskies.
The Huskies lead by as many as eight points during the first half. But St. John's fought its way back, using a 12-2 run to go up 27-22.
Both teams traded leads for the rest of the half and went into break tied at 38.
St. John's would start the second half by scoring the first two baskets and never looked back.
The Red Storm pushed their lead to 68-60 on a breakaway dunk by Storr after UConn missed a chance to cut the lead to four points by missing four shots. The slam was part of a 9-0 run that helped the Red Storm build up a 13-point lead. They ballooned their lead to as many as 16 with about 2 minutes remaining in the game.
The game was also an extremely physical one, with a total of 51 fouls called.
UConn's Donovan Clingan and David Jones of St. John's each received a flagrant foul for exchanging elbows after Clingan grabbed a rebound during the first half. St. John's Posh Alexander and UConn's Hassan Diarra both picked up technical fouls after exchanging words with each other later in the half.
Sanogo was thrown out of the game with less than a minute to go for saying something to an official and Curbelo was tossed moments later.
No. 6 Huskies (15-4, 4-4), who have lost four of five after starting the season with 14 straight wins.
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