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Rick Pitino jokes one loss haunts him despite great St. John's season so far

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery•about 9 hours
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Katie Stratman | Imagn Images

Rick Pitino and the St. John’s Red Storm came away with a big victory on the road on Friday night, battling back to defeat the UConn Huskies, 68-62. The Red Storm trailed early but turned up the heat on their full court pressure and completely flipped around the game in the process. The ultimate perfectionist, Pitino couldn’t help but explain that his team’s loss to Creighton earlier in the season that still haunts him.

“If I’d told you in November you’d be 12-1 in Big East play…” a reporter asked. Pitino joked, “I would’ve said, how the f*** did we lose that one game?”

Creighton defeated St. John’s on New Year’s Eve, 57-56, which is the Red Storm’s only loss in Big East play thus far.

Pitino got a spirited defensive effort from his group and St. John’s continued to show why they’re one of the Top 15 teams in all of college basketball.

Late in the game, they got some big-time buckets from Kadary Richmond. And RJ Luis Jr. was smooth in the clutch, too. Luis pumped in 21 points, drilling the dagger baseline jumper in the final seconds to ice the game.

Richmond stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, six assists, and six rebounds. He scored all of his points in the second half.

The Red Storm were once again downright dominant on the defensive end of the floor. St. John’s forced 22 UConn turnovers, which they turned into 18 points on the other end. Rick Pitino has quickly turned the Red Storm into one of the best defensive units in college basketball and they played like it again on Friday evening.

No. 12 St. John’s (21-3, 12-1 Big East) extended their winning streak to 10 games. No. 19 ranked UConn dropped to 16-7 overall and 8-4 in the Big East.