At this point, it’s not about whether St. Johns can stand out from the mat. It turned out to be a rubber jaw. It’s about how much ferocity the Red Storm will be when it bounces up again.
The Johnnies have responded to adversity all year long, doing their best in the toughest of situations. However, the 81:71 win on Saturday night against Seton Hall at Carnesecca Arena was their most impressive performance so far.
St. Johns was 18-0 behind 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 didn’t break.
St. Johns kept fighting and attacking, beating Seton Hall the rest of the way with an impressive 28 points.
« We definitely have a different culture, and me think we’re in a good direction to move forward, « said junior Greg Williams Jr ..
With the win from behind, the Red Storm (16-10, 10-9 Big East) won for the first time Fourth place in the upcoming conference tournament for six years and a successful league season. A win or two at the Garden next week – St. Johns face Seton Hall # 5 at 3:00 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals – and the NCAA tournament could be back in the game.
Without Alexander and with Isaih Moore (« Coach’s Decision »), who sat on the bench for up to three minutes, coach Mike Anderson went deep into his bench with excellent results. His reserves brought 33 points, including 14 from newcomer Dylan Addae-Wusu and 12 from Marcellus Earlington. Seldom used backups Arnaldo Toro and John McGriff provided critical minutes, especially defensive.
The team’s only constant, Big East top scorer Julian Champagnie, stayed just that, scoring 22 points, six rebounds and two steals. Williams and Rasheem Dunn had five assists and five rebounds each while combining for 18 points. « I think when adversity comes we stick together, » said Williams. « We didn’t fight that much or anything. We just kept on being positive and trying to make a difference in the game. »
St. Johns outpaced the much larger Seton Hall (33-32) and lit it up Pirates in transition. The Johnnies narrowed Pirates senior star Sandro Mamukelashvili to 15 points, 17 less than when the two teams first met, a win at Seton Hall. Mamukelashvili also had 10 rebounds, while Shavar Reynolds 13 points for Seton Hall (13-12, 10-9) added.
The first half was bizarre. St. Johns was as cold as Seton Hall was hot from the start and missed the first 10 shots from the field. The Pirates stood 18-0 – that’s not a misprint – before the Red Storm knew what it was about to hit.
But from then on, the team that played so well at the end of the year and overwhelmed Providence in the second half on Wednesday emerged. St. Johns was down at halftime only by 10 points and dominated the z long half. After the break, he scored 26 of the first 34 points. St. Johns shot 66 percent in the last 20 minutes, scored 50 points in the second half for the second game in a row and forced almost as many turnovers (seven) as the field goals scored allowed (11).
That of course it wasn’t. Next up is the Big East tournament. Feeling like it was ready to go for a big run last year, St. Johns led Creighton at halftime in the quarterfinals before COVID-19 resulted in the entire postseason being canceled. Now the Johnnies will be back in the garden and have a chance to finish what they started.
© 2021 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved
Terms of Use
Data protection
Your ad choices
Page index
Your California Privacy Rights
Do not sell my personal information
Ref: https://nypost.com
