At this time, it is not a question of whether St. John’s can be chosen from the carpet. He has proven to have a rubber jaw. This is the amount of ferocity the red storm will have when they jump again.
The Johnnies have responded to adversity all year, playing their best in the most adverse situations. Saturday night’s 81-71 victory over Seton Hall at the Carnesecca Arena, however, was his most impressive feat to date.
St. John’s dragged 18-0 in less than seven minutes and played without star striker Posh Alexander (thumb sprain). It would have been easy to fold. But that team didn’t break.
St. John’s continued to struggle and attack, beating Seton Hall by an impressive 28 points the rest of the way, winning at the start to win a three-game losing streak to their local rival and send the Pirates to a fourth straight loss.
“We definitely have a different culture, and I think [we’re in] good forward direction, ”said young Greg Williams Jr.
With the win behind them, Red Storm (16-10, 10-9 Big East) reached the fourth seed in the upcoming conference tournament and a winning league season for the first time in six years. One or two wins in the field next week (St. John’s will meet Seton Hall No. 5 at 3 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals) and the NCAA tournament could be in play again.
Without Alexander and with Isaih Moore (the “coach’s decision”) at the base of all but three minutes, coach Mike Anderson came on his bench with sterling results. His reserves produced 33 points, including 14 first-year Dylan Addae-Wusu and 12 from Marcellus Earlington. The backups that Arnaldo Toro and John McGriff rarely made provided key minutes, especially on the defensive side.
The team’s only consistent scorer, Julian Champagnie, continued to do so, scoring 22 points, six rebounds and two steals. Williams and Rasheem Dunn got five assists and five rebounds each, combined for 18 points.
“I think when adversity comes, we stay together,” Williams said. “We didn’t fight so much with each other or anything like that. We were just still positive and trying to make a difference in the game.
St. John’s overcame Seton Hall, much larger, 33-32, and set fire to the transitioning pirates. 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 Seton Hall victory. Mamukelashvili also scored 10 rebounds, while Shavar Reynolds added 13 points for Seton Hall (13-12, 10-9).
The first half was weird. St. John’s was as cold from the start as Seton Hall was hot, and missed his first 10 shots from the field. The Pirates went up 18-0 (that’s not a typo) before the red storm knew what hit them.
But from there the team that played so well at the end of this year resurfaced, overflowing Providence in the second half on Wednesday. St. John’s finished with just 10 at halftime and dominated the second half, scoring 26 of the first 34 points after the break. St. John’s shot 66 percent over the past 20 minutes, producing 50 points in the second half for the second straight game and almost forcing as many changes (seven) as the field goals he allowed (11).
“Our boys played like it was their last game of the season,” Anderson said.
Of course it wasn’t. Next up is the Big East tournament. St. John’s felt he was ready to make a big run last year, leading first-placed Creighton at the break of the quarterfinals before the COVID-19 caused the cancellation of the entire postseason. Now the Johnnies will be back in the garden with a chance to finish what they started.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment,” Williams said, “all this year.”