UConn 66 – St. John’s 50

STORRS – When the fury ended – after two technical fouls and two ejections, after 22 blocked shots and tougher defense than you’ll see in any schoolyard from Harlem to Hartford – the red-hot rivalry between St. John’s and Connecticut was phosphorous-white after a 66-50 UConn win.

And it had nothing to do with the rhetoric that has been spewed by coaches Norm Roberts and Jim Calhoun.

When the Red Storm and Huskies take the court, there is no need for extraneous motivation but there was plenty last night, and it was all about basketball and pride.

Connecticut put its No.1 ranking on the line for the first time this season.

“Our people came here to see all the pretty plays, and it wasn’t going to be that type of game,” said Calhoun.

St. John’s was desperate to prove three straight Big East wins weren’t a fluke.

“We’re not into moral victories,” said Roberts.

With 9:37 left, no one had blinked. Connecticut held a 47-44 lead and Gampel Pavilion was buzzing like a beehive. Then the stingers came out.

Connecticut freshman Jeff Adrien cracked St. John’s center Aaron Spears in the chops with an elbow as the two man-wrestled for position. Spears swung back. Both players were ejected for fighting with 9:05 left, which means Spears will not play Sunday against West Virginia.

“We wanted to get the win; they wanted to get the win,” said St. John’s forward Ryan Williams. “It just exploded.”

It was a bad trade for St. John’s, made worse by the fact that power forward Lamont Hamilton fouled out seven seconds later with just three points. And freshman Anthony Mason Jr. missed most of the second half with the flu.

That left former walk-on Phil Missere and freshman Tomas T.J. Jasiulionus to battle UConn’s future NBA front line of Hilton Armstrong (four points, six boards, three blocks), Josh Boone (nine points, eight rebounds, seven blocks) and Rudy Gay (20 points, eight rebounds, five blocks).

UConn went on a 15-4 run to take a 62-48 lead with 4:35 left. The Huskies (17-1, 5-1 Big East) had warded off the scrappy city kids. St. John’s (10-7, 3-3), which was installed as 17 1/2-point underdogs, might have proven more in the loss than in the wins over South Florida, Louisville and Pitt.

“I saw a the quote that said they’re New York City tough,” said UConn center Josh Boone. “They showed it out on the floor.”

Calhoun and Roberts, who shook hands before and after the game as if the other was a carrier of Avian flu, turned on each other several months ago. It was then that Calhoun called Roberts to tell him Doug Wiggins, a high school guard from East Hartford, was wavering in his verbal commitment to St. John’s. Wiggins has attended almost every UConn game this season but wasn’t one of the 10,167 in attendance.

Then Calhoun joked that his team’s charter flight was late for a recent game because St.John’s had lost track of a player and was delayed getting out of Tampa. Roberts responded by saying Calhoun, who had two players suspended for stealing laptop computers, wouldn’t like jokes about Connecticut and computers.

“In the second half, the game became much more physical than I would like to have seen,” said Calhoun. “It reminded me of a Big East game, probably back in the early ’90s.”

And 20 years from now, St. John’s and Connecticut will still play furious games, regardless of the coaches.