Tarris Reed Jr. and No. 6 UConn will continue their quest to win the Big East regular season championship when they face visiting Seton Hall on Saturday.
UConn (26-3, 16-2 Big East) moved into sole possession of first place with a suffocating defensive effort in Wednesday night’s 72-40 rout of No. 15 St. John’s. The Red Storm shot 11 of 56 from the field and didn’t have a field goal in the final 17:28 of the second half.
“It just starts snowballing on you when you have a night like this,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “Obviously, we played really good defense on them, and I thought we demoralized them a little bit when the score gets where the score got. And I just think it was one of those nights where everything went great for us and everything went wrong for them. But we did a lot to make that happen.”
The victory moved the Huskies a half-game ahead of St. John’s at the top of the Big East standings. After Saturday’s matchup with Seton Hall (19-9, 9-8), UConn will wrap up the regular season with a game at Marquette on March 7.
Reed was the star against St. John’s. He finished the game with 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting and added 11 rebounds, six blocks, three assists and two steals.
“(That) performance was as good as a center’s played for us in a game,” Hurley said. “The thing with Tarris is he can repeat that. And if he repeats that, we’re not going to lose many more games the rest of the way. And it’s repeatable what he was doing. He wasn’t hitting, like, fadeaway, dream-shake shots. He was just a guy with a presence at the rim as a deterrent. And his ball-screen defense and his rebounding, his post position and his passing out of traps — if he does that, this team’s going to have a great rest of the way.”
Seton Hall ranks last in the Big East in scoring (70.4 points per game) and 3-point field goal percentage (30.3%). Adam Clark is averaging a team-high 12.5 points.
Defense has been Seton Hall’s strength. The Pirates have held their opponent to fewer than 70 points in 22 of 28 games. Seton Hall has allowed 65 points or fewer in 14 games.
“Our defense is part of our identity,” forward Najai Hines said.
Despite missing all 18 of its 3-point attempts, Seton Hall beat Georgetown 51-47 Saturday, when the Pirates last played.
“We dug deep,” Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway said. “Made plays when we needed to make them. Found a way to win the game. We need the rest.”
Reed scored 21 points when UConn earned a 69-64 road victory at Seton Hall on Jan. 13.
The Huskies led by 18 in the second half. Seton Hall pulled within one point on Mike Williams’ 3-pointer with 48 seconds left.
The Huskies didn’t have a field goal for the final 5:40 of the game, but Silas Demary Jr. gave them some breathing room by making four free throws in the last 29 seconds.
