STORRS, Conn. — One stop, one rebound. That’s all it would’ve taken for St. John’s to pick up the win it had been in search of, a victory that would begin to build an NCAA Tournament résumé.

The Red Storm didn’t get it, instead receiving multiple unlucky bounces in those final seconds.

An inspired rally against Connecticut went for naught. A frustrating overtime and fifth loss in six games against a power-conference team followed. St. John’s left Gampel Pavilion with an 86-78 loss after the Red Storm were unable to carry over their momentum from a fantastic end of regulation into overtime.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” said junior star Julian Champagnie, who scored a game-high 27 points. “I feel like we had that one in the bag.”

Champagnie’s right-wing 3-pointer with 4.8 seconds left had given St. John’s the lead, a capper to a furious 21-10 run that turned a 10-point deficit into a one-point edge. Connecticut had to go the entire length of the court. Andre Jackson heaved the ball down court, within Dylan Addae-Wusu’s grasp. But the sophomore could only get one hand on the ball. It went out of bounds, enabling the Huskies to advance the ball with just 0.7 seconds going off the clock.

Otherwise …

“The game is done, they got to foul,” said Champagnie, who scored a game-high 27 points. “It’s how the game goes.”

On the ensuing play, Tyrese Martin missed in close, but Aaron Wheeler couldn’t corral the carom. Adama Sanogo got to it, and was fouled with 1.3 seconds to go. He hit one of two free throws to force overtime, an extra session the Huskies dominated.

St. John’s (9-4, 1-2 Big East) led early in the extra session, but after a Champagnie jumper, UConn (11-4, 2-2) scored the next 11 points — four from Sanogo (26 points, 18 rebounds) — and never looked back. The Red Storm are now 0-4 in Quad 1 games.

“I know this team here, they’re not going to let go of the rope,” coach Mike Anderson said. “They gave themselves a chance.

“I told them that was probably the best game they played all year long.”

For the second straight game, St. John’s was on the short end of a significant foul discrepancy. The Red Storm committed 26 fouls compared to the Huskies’ 13. Unlike after their loss Saturday at Providence, when Anderson ripped the officials, he declined to comment following this defeat.

There were positives to take from what was clearly the Red Storm’s best performance of the season. Wheeler took another step forward, scoring 13 points and adding seven rebounds, building on his 15-point effort at Providence. St. John’s actually outrebounded UConn, 47-45, and nearly doubled up the Huskies, 20-11, in second-chance points. The Red Storm never gave in, rallying from three different double-digit deficits and putting themselves in position to prevail despite shooting 34.6 percent from the field.

“Me, personally, I think we are headed in the right direction,” Champagnie said. “That’s how hard we have to play every game, for the full game. Those last 10 minutes, we really picked up [our intensity] and started playing with pace and aggression.”

Before the game, St. John’s announced freshman guard Rafael Pinzon will be out indefinitely because of health precautions. The freshman guard is coming off a bout with COVID-19.