St. John's basketball: 5 biggest takeaways exiting loss against UConn

It was a tough start to the Christmas weekend for the St. John's basketball team after its heartbreaking loss on the road against No. 5 UConn, which saw the Huskies rattle off an 8-2 run in the final 3:40 of the game to secure the victory.

Head coach Rick Pitino was agitated that his team could not close out the victory but had an overall positive message following the loss, stating that he believed it was the best game the Red Storm have played all season.

The Johnnies led by six at halftime, 32-26, and pushed that advantage to eight in the opening minute of the second half before the Huskies would mount a run to take the lead and not surrender it until back-to-back 3-pointers from the Red Storm with 4:15 remaining.

Connecticut recaptured the lead with 2:22 left and would not give it up despite two chances in the final 17.7 seconds to tie the game from the Red Storm.

However, the result still serves as the fourth loss for St. John's before the new calendar year and, while the Red Storm are not in panic mode by any stretch, the need to string together quality victories during conference play is paramount to achieve the ultimate goal of reaching the NCAA Tournament.

There was a lot to digest from a performance like this but we narrowed things down to the five biggest takeaways for St. John's from its loss in Hartford aganist the defending National Champions.