There were two ranked teams playing in Big East games on Tuesday, only one of them won against their unranked opponent. No. 11/10 Louisville Cardinals defeated the St. John's Red Storm at Madison Square Garden. The No. 8 Connecticut Huskies were felled at the Prudential Center by the Seton Hall Pirates.
No. 11/10 Louisville 73, St. John's 58: The Louisville team leads the Big East in points per possession defense. That was on display against St. John's at the Garden on Tuesday. The Red Storm were held to just 18 first half points. They played better in the second half but so did the Cardinals and they won going away. The Cards hit 9-22 three-point attempts while St. John's was just 2-16. The Johnnies were just 18-64 from the field. Russ Smith was only 5-15 shooting but 3-6 from behind the arc and led Louisville with 17 points, 7 assists, 4 steals and 4 rebounds. Gorgui Dieng swatted 7 shots for Louisville to go with his 12 points and 9 rebounds. Kyle Kuric chipped in 15 points for the Cards. D`Angelo Harrison and Maurice Harkless were the only St. John's players to reach double figures in scoring. Harrison had a game-high 24 points while Harkless has 12 points. For more postgame Louisville coverage, visit Card Chronicle. For more postgame St. John's coverage, visit Rumble In The Garden or SB Nation New York's storystream.
Seton Hall 75, No. 8 UConn 63: At halftime, Seton Hall led 35-22. I wrote for SB Boston that the Huskies were being plagued by turnovers, which was true. After turning the ball over 16 times in the first half, the Huskies only had two turnovers in the second half. However, the damage had already been done. UConn cooled off from three-point range and couldn't close on the Pirates. Seton Hall kept pace with UConn on the boards and kept hitting their shots and their free throws. Jordan Theodore led the Pirates in scoring with 19 points. He also had 8 assists, three rebounds and two steals. Herb Pope had 15 points and 7 rebounds for Seton Hall. Fuquan Edwin had 12 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals for the Pirates. Jeremy Lamb led UConn with 19 points, but he scored 13 in the first half. Niels Giffey was the only other Husky in double figures with 11 points. The win was the first over UConn since 2001 for Seton Hall. For more Seton Hall postgame coverage, visit South Orange Juice or SB Nation New York's storystream. For more UConn postgame coverage, visit The UConn Blog or SB Nation Boston's storystream.
There are four Big East games on the schedule for Wednesday: No. 20 Marquette at No. 9 Georgetown (7 p.m., TV: ESPNU); West Virginia at Rutgers (7 p.m., TV: ESPN3); Notre Dame at Cincinnati (7 p.m., TV: ESPN3); No. 1 Syracuse at Providence (9 p.m., TV: ESPN3).