Hartford – Saturday’s hotly-contested Big East game appeared on the verge of reaching a boiling point.

UConn and St. John’s traded body blows in the physically bruising affair.

Tempers flared on a few occasions.

A raucous sold-out XL Center crowd roared its approval and went home happy after No. 5 UConn earned a hard-fought 69-65 win in its Big East home opener.

“What I’m most happy about is we saved Christmas for ourselves and our great fans and the state of Connecticut because a loss here would have been a lot of doom and gloom for a lot of people,” coach Dan Hurley said.

“... These Big East games are so physical. It’s going to be that way for the next 18 games. We showed tremendous resolve and resilience with how we responded. We showed a championship response to how we played the other day (at Seton Hall).”

The Huskies (11-2, 1-1) rebounded from a brutal loss at Seton Hall on Wednesday and avenged last season’s home defeat to the Red Storm. They head into a holiday break with the satisfaction of winning without sophomore Donovan Clingan, who’s out for three to four weeks with a right foot injury.

“If we would have lost, it would have been terrible…,” guard Tristen Newton said. “We needed this win.”

With Clingan out, junior Samson Johnson took advantage of his opportunity. He delivered a career-best performance while making his second career start, finishing with team-leading 16 points, four rebounds and a block in 30 minutes.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of a guy stepping in for such a critical piece,” Hurley said. “If he didn’t play like that, we’d have no chance because he played against one of the best big guys in the country and won the matchup.”

St. John’s center Joel Soriano who had 14 points and 11 rebounds. The Red Storm fell to 8-4, 1-1.

Johnson got involved early, opening the game with a put-back dunk and scoring 10 points in the first half on the way to a terrific performance.

“Coming into the game, I just wanted to make all the right plays and all the tough plays,” Johnson said. “To start like that with a put-back dunk was amazing.”

Newton, who contributed 15 points, a team-high nine rebounds and six assists, made winning plays down the stretch. He scored the go-ahead basket on a driving shot for a 65-63 lead at the two minute, 22 second mark. Then he added a free throw to extend the lead to three with 17.7 seconds left.

After St. John’s Dannis Jenkins misfired on a potential game-tying three, Hassan Diarra made one of two free throws with 5.3 seconds remaining for the final margin.

The Huskies limited the Red Storm, who shot 38.5 percent, to just one basket after Glenn Taylor’s three handed the visitors their last lead at 63-61 at the 4:13 mark.

The game was a classic Big East rock fight. Both teams battled foul trouble.

Neither team led by more than five points in the final 19 minutes.

Trailing 32-26 at the break, UConn came out with more energy and enthusiasm in the second half and went on a momentum-changing run.

“We challenged them a little bit,” Hurley said. “They looked pretty determined and the first two minutes we responded.”

The competitive temperature rose on both sides.

Newton drew a foul as he finished off a layup. Then Cam Spencer (15 points) got into a brief altercation with St. Taylor before being separated.

The dust-up ignited the crowd.

“It was just the heat of the moment,” Spencer said. “I’m a fiery competitor. … The game was ugly at that point. Tristen had a great finish. Just a little scuffle.”

The Huskies, who struggled against St. John’s zone, kept attacking. Shortly after Newton converted a free throw to complete the 3-point play, Johnson’s dunk tied the score at 34-all and Spencer made two free throws to cap the 10-0 spurt.

“The 10-0 run really helped us out because we were dead at the point,” Newton said. “We need to make a run so we could win the game.”

From there, the game remained tight until the end.

The XL Center crowd helped carry the Huskies to the finish line.

The Huskies received valuable contributions from two freshmen.

Stephon Castle, who returned to the starting lineup for the first time since Nov. 11, provided eight points and seven rebounds. Center Youssouf Singare saw his first meaningful minutes of his career, playing six minutes while backing up Johnson.

The Huskies will get a much-deserved three days off before returning to practice on Wednesday.

The victory was a nice early Christmas gift.

“The atmosphere was great and the fans were great,” Spencer said. “We wanted to bring out a lot of energy and respond from our last game. Just really proud of the effort from the team.”

g.keefe@theday.com