NEW YORK, NY — With 20 degree weather and snow slowly falling Friday night, Madison Square Garden was on fire as No. 22 St. John’s knocked off No. 3 UConn, 81-72, in a Big East showdown and top-25 ranked matchup.
What made for the hottest ticket in town (19,812 in attendance), and from home, a national stand-alone game televised on FOX for the whole nation to watch, with Rick Pitino vs. Dan Hurley and two teams atop of the conference standings, the Red Storm snapped the Huskies’ 18-game winning streak to hand UConn its second loss of the 2025-2026 regular season (22-2 overall, 12-1 in Big East play).
For the Johnnies, moving to 18-5 overall, 11-1 in Big East play, with a winning streak of nine, the victory marked the program’s highest ranked win in over five years—February 3rd, 2021 when the Red Storm defeated Villanova—ranked No. 3 at the time and its highest at “The World’s Most Famous Arena” since beating No. 3 Duke on January 30th, 2011.
“Everybody from top to bottom was really engaged,” said senior Zuby Ejiofor, who added to his ongoing Big East Player of the Year campaign by recording 21 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, three blocks and two steals across 35 minutes. “The moment when the buzzer sounded and it was over, and you realized that you just beat a really well-coached team, all the emotions really just flew out.
I can’t really remember what was done or what was said. But I just let it all out. Just a fantastic atmosphere to be in.”
There simply wasn’t more you could ask for out of Ejiofor on the night, playing in all but five minutes. And Pitino let that be known after, stating “when do you get a center that leads you in assists, steals, blocked shots, scoring and rebounding? Pretty damn special.”
While Ejiofor finished with a game-high in points, rebounds, assists and blocks, Dillon Mitchell and Bryce Hopkins also played massive roles, dropping 15 and 14 points, respectively, with six rebounds and two assists each.
Looking forward, St. John’s and UConn will face off once again on Wednesday, February 25th in Hartford, Connecticut, with a third round potentially in the realm of occurring in the Big East Conference Tournament next month at the Garden.
The Atmosphere at The Mecca
Behind each of the legendary head coaches in Hurley and Pitino, winning four national championships combined, are passionate fanbases—bitter foes, sharing the same commute to and from MSG—who both consider the Mecca their own home court.
Everything that College Basketball is all about.
The eyes of the College Basketball world were on Madison Square Garden Friday night for No. 3 UConn vs. No. 22 St. John’s – Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
Approximately 19,812 fans in attendance for Friday’s Big East battle under the lights of MSG in a primetime slot at 8:00PM ET.
“I thought the Garden was as good as I’ve seen it,” Pitino said, crediting St. John’s fans for taking over the building. “When I was at Louisville, Big East Tournaments, I thought it was unbelievable how good the Garden was. I said 70-30 (percentage of each fanbase in attendance) the other day, 60-40 but that was 90-10 (tonight).
Tremendous crowd. Proud of our fans and excited for our fans.”
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