By Anthony Bosco
“Tough, tough, tough.”
Those were the first three words Mike Jarvis thought to say when he sat down to talk with reporters following the St. John’s Red Storm’s heartbreaking 74-68 loss to the No. 11-ranked University of Connecticut Huskies Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
Flanked by Marcus Hatten and Anthony Glover, the head coach of the men’s basketball team was barely audible as he began to recount the game, a game in which his blue-collar club was outworked — albeit slightly — by a team that just seemed to want it more down the stretch.
“This is who we are,” Jarvis said. “There’s going to come a day when we’re the big guys and we’re going to have to adjust to the little people and they’re going to have to adjust to us. Right now we’re the little guys. Little guys have to be tougher, smarter and sustain it for longer periods of time. We’re the little tiny dog in the neighborhood with the sharp teeth who has to bite and claw for 40 minutes. It’s that simple. Sometimes we forget that.”
There was plenty of fight in the Red Storm (10-6, 3-3), but just not enough points. Despite taking 16 more shots, registering 16 steals and forcing 21 Connecticut turnovers, St. John’s could not put the ball in the basket.
Kyle Cuffe had an abysmal day in the five hole, struggling against UConn’s Emeka Okafor. Cuffe finished with just 2 points on 1-of-11 shooting and 4 rebounds, while Okafor had 21 points on 10-of-14 shooting, 13 rebounds and 6 blocks.
“You can look at these numbers on paper, and I’m convinced more and more everyday that the more you look at them the less they really mean,” Jarvis said. “We have to get a lot tougher and not just physically. I’m convinced that we will, sooner of later.”
UConn (13-3, 4-1) controlled the opening tip, scoring quickly on a basket by Okafor, and though St. John’s would battle throughout, the Red Storm would never lead.
A three by Glover at 14:55 tied the game at 10 before the Huskies established control over the next seven minutes, running out to a nine-point lead, 28-19, as five different Huskies scored during the stretch. The lead ballooned to 11 on back-to-back baskets by Okafor before St. John’s clawed back into it before the half.
A free throw by Glover, a three by Willie Shaw and a basket by the steadily improving Grady Reynolds cut the deficit to five before Hilton Armstrong and Okafor baskets — sandwiching a Hatten bucket — made the score 36-29 at the half.
“I really don’t have too many criticisms of my kids,” said UConn coach Jim Calhoun. “I thought we played exceptionally well.”
The game picked up in intensity to start the second half, as baskets by Denham Brown and Ben Gordon gave the Huskies back their 11-point lead less than a minute in. But the double-digit deficit only ignited the Red Storm offense, which scored the next 7 points.
But every time the Storm got close, UConn managed to hold on.
A furious sequence saw St. John’s pull within two after a Hatten steal and dish to Glover, who scored uncontested on the fast break, and another fast break basket by Reynolds to make the score 53-51 with 10:21 remaining.
Tony Robertson scored for UConn to make it a four-point game, but Glover scored again to pull St. John’s within two. After a UConn turnover, Hatten had a chance to tie the game, but was blocked by Okafor inside.
The two teams then traded baskets, before baskets by Okafor and Shamon Tooles pushed the UConn lead back to seven, 62-55, with 5:44 to play.
And though they remained close, the Red Storm never got within one possession again.
“Each time of the game when we were down two, I think we were riding the high wave that got us back into the game,” Hatten said. “I think that kind of got in the way in being disciplined. We let it pass us.”
“It’s good to know that we can beat anybody, but it’s going to feel a lot better, I guess, when we do,” Jarvis said. “We’ll give them this one. Hopefully we’ll learn.
“I thought we could have done a lot more things better than we did,” the coach added. “We certainly had our chances.”
Hatten led all scorers with 26 points, passing the 1,000-point mark for his career, with 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals. Glover was the only other SJU member in double figures with 17 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals.
Both Reynolds and Shaw scored 8 each off the bench, while Eric King added 7.
Gordon led UConn with 23 points and 6 assists.
The Red Storm will try to get back on the winning track Sunday when it hosts Miami at 2 p.m. at Madison Square Garden.
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 1-718-229-0300, Ext. 130.
