Right now, it’s not about whether St. John’s can pluck itself off the mat. It has proven to have a rubber jaw. It’s about how much ferocity the Red Storm will have when they bounce back up again.
The Johnnies have responded to setbacks throughout the year and have done their best under the most adverse of situations. However, Saturday night’s victory 81-71 at Seton Hall in Carnesecca Arena was their most impressive achievement to date.
St. John’s was down 18-0 in less than seven minutes and played without star 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, beating Seton Hall by an astonishing 28 points the rest of the way, winning by going away to shoot a three-game loss streak to his local rival and the Pirates to a fourth straight defeat to send.
“We definitely have a different culture, and I think [we’re in] a good direction forward, ”said junior Greg Williams Jr.
With the come-from-behind win, the Red Storm (16-10, 10-9 Big East) took fourth seed in the upcoming conference tournament and a winning league game season for the first time in six years. A win or two at the Garden next week – St. John’s meets No. 5 Seton Hall on Thursday at 3pm in the quarter-finals – and the NCAA tournament could start again.
Without Alexander and with Isaih Moore (“coach decision”) on the bench for nearly three minutes, Coach Mike Anderson went deep into his bench with excellent results. His reserves netted 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 in defense.
The team’s one constant, Big East top scorer Julian Champaign, remained just that, with 22 points, six rebounds and two steals. Williams and Rasheem Dunn each had five assists and five rebounds, while combining for 18 points.
“I think we stick together when there is adversity,” said Williams. ‘We didn’t bicker or anything like that very often. We just kept being positive and trying to make a difference in the game. “
St. John’s bounced back to the much larger Seton Hall, 33-32, and set the Pirates on fire in the transition. The Johnnies limited Pirates senior star Sandro Mamukelashvili to 15 points, 17 less than he produced in the first meeting between the two teams, a win at Seton Hall. Mamukelashvili also had 10 rebounds, while Shavar Reynolds added 13 points for Seton Hall (13-12, 10-9).
The first half was bizarre. St. John’s was as cold as Seton Hall’s hot from the start, missing the first 10 shots from the field. The Pirates were leading 18-0 – that’s not a misprint – before the Red Storm knew what hit them.
But from there, the team that played so well resurfaced late this year, which overwhelmed Providence in the second half on Wednesday. St. John’s was down by only 10 at half time and dominated the second half with 26 of the first 34 points after a break. St. John’s shot 66 percent over the last 20 minutes, produced 50 points in the second half for the second game in a row and forced nearly as much turnover (seven) as field goals (11).
“Our boys played like it was their last game of the season,” said Anderson.
Of course it wasn’t. Next up is the Big East Tournament. St John’s felt it was ready to make a big run last year, leading top-seeded Creighton at half-time in the quarter-finals before COVID-19 led to the cancellation of the entire post season. Now the Johnnies will be back in the garden with a chance to finish what they started.
“We’ve been looking forward to this moment,” said Williams, “this whole year.”