At this point, it’s not about whether St. John’s can get off the mat. It proved to have a rubber jaw. It’s about how ferocious the Red Storm will be when it recovers.
The Johnnies responded to adversity throughout the year, playing their best in the most adverse situations. Saturday’s 81-71 victory over Seton Hall at Carnesecca Arena, however, was the most impressive achievement so far.
St. John’s was down 18-0 in less than seven minutes and was playing without point guard Posh Alexander (sprained thumb). It would have been easy to fold. But this team did not break.
St. John’s continued to fight and attack, and beat Seton Hall by an impressive 28 points the rest of the way, winning and breaking a three-game losing streak to his local rival and sending Pirates to their fourth straight loss.
“We definitely have a different culture and I think [we’re in] a good direction to move on, ”said junior Greg Williams Jr ..
With the unexpected victory, Red Storm (16-10, 10-9 Big East) conquered the fourth seed in the upcoming conference tournament and a league winning season for the first time in six years. One or two wins at the Garden next week – St. John’s will face No. 5 Seton Hall at 3 pm Thursday in the quarterfinals – and the NCAA tournament may be back in the game.
Without Alexander and with Isaih Moore (“coach decision”) away for almost three minutes, coach Mike Anderson went to the back of the bench with excellent results. His reserves produced 33 points, including 14 from freshman Dylan Addae-Wusu and 12 from Marcellus Earlington. The rarely used backups, Arnaldo Toro and John McGriff, provided important minutes, especially on the defensive end.
The only constant on the team, Big East scorer Julian Champagnie, remained exactly that, with 22 points, six rebounds and two steals. Williams and Rasheem Dunn each had five assists and five rebounds, combining for 18 points.
“I think that when adversity comes, we stay together,” said Williams. “We didn’t fight so much with each other or anything. We continue to be positive and try to make a difference in the game ”.
St. John’s overtook Seton Hall, much larger, 33-32, and set fire to the Pirates in the transition. Johnnies limited Pirates’ senior star Sandro Mamukelashvili to 15 points, 17 less than he produced in the first meeting between the two teams, a Seton Hall victory. Mamukelashvili also had 10 rebounds, while Shavar Reynolds added 13 points to Seton Hall (13-12, 10-9).
The first half was bizarre. St. John’s was as cold from the start as Seton Hall was hot, losing his first 10 pitches. The Pirates won 18-0 – that’s not a misprint – before Red Storm knew what hit them.
But from there, the team that played so well at the end of this year, that beat Providence in the second half of this Wednesday, came back to the fore. St. John’s were down by just 10 points at the break and dominated the second half, scoring 26 of the first 34 points after the break. St. John’s hit 66 percent in the final 20 minutes, producing 50 points in the second half for the second consecutive game and nearly forcing as many turns (seven) as the field goals allowed (11).
“Our guys played like it was the last game of the season,” said Anderson.
Of course. The next is the Big East Tournament. St. John’s felt he was ready to do a great race last year, leading Creighton in the quarter-final break before COVID-19 led to the cancellation of the entire postseason. Now the Johnnies will be back at the Garden with a chance to finish what they started.
“We are looking forward to this moment,” said Williams, “this whole year.”