On Valentine’s Day, UConn coach Dan Hurley had no love for the Huskies fans, criticizing them for not turning out and not creating a “madhouse” atmosphere during a win over Georgetown.

Four days later, he had no love for his team’s defense in a stunning 91-84 loss to Creighton at home, calling it a “joke.”

On Wednesday, he was full of love for the No. 6 Huskies as they turned in a dominant performance, shutting down No. 15 St. John’s 72-40 in front of a raucous crowd at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, Conn.

With the win, the Huskies reclaimed a share of the Big East lead and sent a strong message to the NCAA Tournament selection committee that they deserve consideration for a No. 1 seed come March.

“We took great care of the ball. We did the job on the backboard for the most part,” Hurley told NBC Sports after the game. “Our defense was championship level. We got so many awesome players on offense.”

And UConn (26-3, 16-2) also got revenge against St. John’s (22-6, 15-2), who won the first meeting between the teams 81-72 on Feb. 6 at Madison Square Garden to snap the Huskies’ 18-game winning streak.

With the loss on Wednesday, the Red Storm’s 13-game winning streak ended, as did their three-game run of victories against UConn.

In the first game, the Huskies couldn’t contain the Red Storm trio of Dillon Mitchell (15 points, six rebounds), Zuby Ejiofor (21 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists) and Bryce Hopkins (14 points, six rebounds), who combined for 50 points on 17-of-26 shooting. The team shot 50% in that game.

But on Wednesday, the Huskies defense held those three to a combined 14 points on 5-of-23 shooting.

And in one of the most astonishing stats of the college basketball season, UConn held St. John’s to just 14 second-half points – nine of them coming on free throws. The Red Storm were just 2-of-28 shooting in the half, and they were 0-of-26 in the final 17:28 of the game. When Ejiofor hit that final basket, the Huskies were up 45-31 and outscored the Red Storm 22-5 the rest of the way.

St. John’s shot 7.1% in the second half and 19.6% for the game, with the Huskies shooting 47.5% overall.

It was the fewest points St John’s scored on the season; they defeated Ole Miss 63-58 on Dec. 6. And the last time the Red Storm scored as few as 40 points was March 5, 2023, when Notre Dame beat them 66-40.

This was the worst loss of the three-year Rick Pitino era at St. John's.

In his brief postgame interview, Hurley said center Tarris Reed Jr.’s play “set the tone for the game. When he plays like that, it’s hard for us to lose."

In the first meeting with St. John’s, Reed had 12 points and six rebounds, with two steals and three blocks. On Wednesday, he put up 20 points (9-of-14 shooting), had 11 rebounds, three assists, two steals and six blocked shots.

“This is his best game, because of the opposition,” Hurley said of Reed. “The team. The player he went up against. If he shows up like this, which I think he’s decided he’s going to from here on out, we’re going to be tough to beat the rest of the way.”

Alex Karaban scored 14 points and Solo Ball contributed 11. Silas Demary Jr. had seven points, eight rebounds and just one turnover, compared to nine in the first game against St. John’s.

The Huskies committed just five turnovers and scored 42 points in the paint.

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