February 25, 2026; Hartford, Connecticut, USA; UConn Huskies forward Tarris Reed Jr. (5) and guard Malachi Smith (0) beat St. Louis in the second half at PeoplesBank Arena. Working for the ball against St. John’s Red Storm forward Rubén Prey (17). Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images Due to historically poor performance, St. St. John’s dropped out of the Big East lead and another bad performance moved the Red Storm closer to third place.
The 15th-ranked Red Storm hope to avoid another disappointing loss when they host improved Villanova in New York on Saturday night.
St. John’s (22-6, 15-2 Big East) trailed first-place UConn by a half-game after missing its last 24 shots in Wednesday’s 72-40 loss to the Huskies in Hartford. Villanova (22-6, 13-4) won 82-73 at home over Butler the same evening and fell two games behind the Red Storm.
St. John’s lost its lead in the conference to 40 points, its fewest points since scoring 45 at Notre Dame on March 5, 2013. The Red Storm scored 18 straight points in the first half and 16 straight points in the second half.
“We did something we’ve never done before,” coach Rick Pitino said after his team took a 42-12 lead in the paint. “It’s something I have to question myself and I will question the team because they haven’t done what we have done in the last 13 games.”
The Red Storm failed to hit the basket in the final 17:28 after a jumper by Zuby Ejiofor that kept the score at six. St. John’s made 2 of 28 shots (7.1 percent) in the second half and 19.6 percent overall, its lowest field goal percentage in any game since 1938-1939.
“We’re still playing to win the league,” Pitino said. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s one loss or 40 losses. The league title is still at stake. Of course we make adjustments and move forward.”
A difficult night was followed by a dominant 81-52 home win over Creighton last Saturday. This was after St. John’s had won 13 straight games. During the back-to-back games, the Red Storm often had big nights from their frontcourt of Ejiofor, Bryce Hopkins and Dillon Mitchell, but the trio was held to a combined 14 points on 5 of 23 points.
Villanova lost 86-79 when the teams met in Philadelphia on Jan. 17, with standout freshman Acaden Lewis scoring 3 points on 1-of-7 shooting. The Wildcats are 8-2 in their last 10 games, with both losses coming against UConn, including Saturday’s loss to the Huskies where they shot 6 of 24 from 3-point range.
“These guys are great players to coach,” first-year Villanova coach Kevin Willard said Wednesday after his team took a 14-point halftime lead. “They come in, work hard and have a great attitude. “That’s why I think this team is as good as we are. That’s our attitude.”
Villanova has scored at least 80 points in five of its last seven wins, and Lewis scored 14 of his game-high 20 points Wednesday in a first half in which the Wildcats shot 49.2 percent overall. Lewis has scored at least 20 points in three of his last six games, including a 26-point performance at Georgetown three weeks ago.
In addition to Lewis, Bryce Lindsay added 19 points against Butler, his most points since scoring 19 against DePaul on Dec. 31. Devin Askew contributed two 3-pointers in a decisive 8-0 run in the second half and finished with 16 points after shooting 9 of 44 in the previous five games.
–Field level media
