Thur, Feb 10, 2011, 7PM EST, ESPN
Line: UConn -1.5
Total: 131
The 10th-ranked Connecticut Huskies (18-4, 6-4 Big East) will try for their fifth straight road win on Thursday when they visit Madison Square Garden for this conference matchup with the St. John’s Red Storm (13-9, 5-5). The Huskies (-1) have won their last three league road games following arguably their most impressive victory of the season at #3 Texas back on January 8 in overtime, 82-81.
UConn is coming off a 61-59 win at Seton Hall last Saturday though that might have been more remarkable regardless of the opponent. The Huskies trailed the Pirates 56-46 with eight minutes left and avoided their third loss in a row overall by going on a game-ending 15-3 run. Leading scorer Kemba Walker continued to struggle with his shooting but still managed to hit some big shots when his team needed them, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:32 remaining.
Walker finished the game by making 7 of 19 shots from the field en route to a team-high 19 points, and he
also converted only 2 of 7 free-throw attempts. He has averaged 16.8 points on 31.8 percent shooting in the last six games, with Connecticut going 2-4 against the spread during that stretch.
St. John’s certainly hopes Walker’s shooting woes continue as the team tries to beat a Top 15 team at MSG for the fourth time this season. The Red Storm has already beaten #5 Duke, #8 Notre Dame and #11 Georgetown at home but will look to rebound following a 66-59 loss at UCLA on Saturday.
In fact, the only cover for St. John’s in the last six games came against the Blue Devils in a 93-78 shocker as an 8-point underdog on January 30. The UNDER is 4-1 in the past five. The Red Storm could not give head coach Steve Lavin a win in his return to Westwood due mostly to a huge disparity at the charity stripe. Lavin’s team went to the free-throw line just seven times while the Bruins scored 27 points there themselves.
The good news for St. John’s is that the officiating has definitely provided a different result at home. The Red Storm are averaging 27 trips to the free-throw line in their last six home games compared to less than 13 per game in their past five on the road. They are 11-2 when get to the charity stripe at least 21 times.
The Huskies were stunned 73-51 by St. John’s as 4.5-point favorites in the last meeting, which took place during last year’s Big East tournament. UConn had won the previous nine games between the teams, going 6-3 ATS. The UNDER has cashed in the last three meetings along with seven of the past eight.
