UConn women’s basketball upset by St. John’s, 69-64

Nothing went right for No. 4 UConn women’s basketball on Tuesday night at the XL Center as the Huskies fell to the St. John’s Red Storm, 69-64. They drop their second Big East contest of the season — the first time they’ve lost multiple conference games since 2013-14. St. John’s earned its first win over UConn since February 2012.

UConn got as close as two in the final minute but eventually had to resort to fouling and couldn’t complete the late comeback.

Despite trailing by as many as nine in the second quarter, UConn started the third on a 13-0 run to go up by eight. St. John’s responded with 16 of the next 21 points to re-take the lead and enter the fourth quarter with a three-point edge that it would never give up.

Lou Lopez Sénéchal scored a team-high 18 points while Aaliyah Edwards (14), Dorka Juhász (14), and Nika Mühl (13) also reached double figures.

UConn’s offense couldn’t do anything right in the first quarter. It took the Huskies 2:46 to score their first points and 4:28 to make their first basket. They also went through a scoring drought that lasted over four minutes after they finally got on the board and committed five turnovers in the opening period.

It didn’t go much better on the defensive end. Despite holding St. John’s to a 2-11 shooting start, the visitors put up 21 points in the first quarter — the most the Huskies have allowed in any first quarter this season. Through 10 minutes, UConn trailed by six.

In the second quarter, the Huskies did just enough to stay close — the Red Storm pushed their lead to nine multiple times — but only got within one possession once. UConn went into the locker room down 35-30.

The Huskies finally flipped a switch out of the break, resulting in a quick 9-0 run to take their first lead since the opening quarter. St. John’s didn’t score its first points of the second half until over six minutes had come off the clock, which allowed UConn to eventually build a five-point advantage.

That momentum only lasted so long, though. Over the final four minutes of the third quarter, the Red Storm out-scored the Huskies 16-5 and went into the final period up by three.

Down the stretch, UConn just didn’t make enough plays to pull back ahead. Every time it scored to get close, it gave up a basket down the other end. The Huskies got within two on a free throw from Juhász with 2:09 left but were outscored 7-4 the rest of the way.

Next, the Huskies will look to get back on track against DePaul. UConn tips off in Wintrust Arena on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. ET on FOX.