St. John's gets revenge on Seton Hall, moves closer to NCAA berth

Shamorie Ponds led St. John's with 27 points as Red Storm led by as many as 23 against Seton Hall, gaining retribution for Pirates' controversial win in December. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

NEW YORK -- And I'm here, to remind you

Of the mess you left when you went away

It's not fair, to deny me

Of the cross I bear that you gave to me

- Alanis Morissette, "You Oughta Know"

No, we didn't watch someone get back at a former significant other, but we did get a rematch of a longstanding local rivalry Saturday night, the most recent installment of which ended in controversy when Michael Stephens' inadvertent whistle gave Seton Hall a mulligan that the Pirates later converted into a buzzer-beating win over St. John's to open Big East Conference play.

Nearly two months later, the Red Storm -- already playing with a chip on its shoulder in the wake of a demoralizing loss at Providence three days earlier and adding that fuel to its collective fire that had been started in the final seconds at the Prudential Center back on December 29 -- got the chance to fire back, in front of a near-capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden. And without Mustapha Heron -- who missed Saturday's game due to tendinitis in his knee, a recurring issue that sidelined him against Providence two weeks ago and has left him day-to-day, per head coach Chris Mullin -- St. John's stormed out of the gate -- no pun intended -- on a 28-5 run over the first nine minutes and never looked back, defeating Seton Hall by a 78-70 final score that was much closer than, and in no way indicative of, how the game actually let on.

"It was definitely payback," the junior point guard said in the wake of a 27-point performance as St. John's (20-8, 8-7 Big East) erased the loss that its fan base still places an asterisk next to with a wire-to-wire Quadrant 1 win that gives an already secure NCAA Tournament berth even greater stability. "We always kept in the back of our mind what they did at the end of the game to us, so we just wanted to put our foot on their neck early."

"Coach is going to say the effort was there because he always has our back, but as a captain and a leader, I don't think it was there," Myles Powell admitted, calling out Seton Hall's sluggish start after head coach Kevin Willard began his postgame press conference by defending his team's effort and intensity. "We found ourselves down 20 points, and it's kind of hard to always play from behind."

Seton Hall (16-11, 7-8 Big East) would battle back and attempt to make the game interesting on multiple occasions, first in the first half before St. John's responded with eight unanswered points to take an 18-point advantage into the intermission, and then with a 10-4 run in the final minutes after the Pirates drew as close as five points, but could not fully scale the mountain as the Red Storm once again followed a head-scratching loss with a convincing victory.

"I just think we were mainly just locked in and focused, not forgetting what the last game was like," Marvin Clark -- who scored 18 points in his final regular season game at the Garden -- said of the team's mindset coming into games on the heels of a previous loss. "We've been trying our hardest not to drop two in a row, and I think we've done a good job of that. But where we've got to grow still is being able to win and go into that next game with the same mindset. That's just the biggest focus for us right now, finishing the season strong and giving us momentum into the Big East tournament and the Big Dance."

And as St. John's heads into a final three-game stretch of favorable matchups -- two against Xavier, sandwiched by a trip to Chicago to take on a DePaul team that upset the Red Storm at Carnesecca Arena last month -- the mood on the other side of the Hudson River is a stark contrast, as Seton Hall now looks to start fresh going into a troika of make-or-break matchups against the likes of Georgetown, Marquette and Villanova.

"This group, we've been in a lot of close, tight games," Willard assessed. "I think the biggest thing I'm learning about them is they don't understand -- this time of year, I think -- what it takes to really kind of win on a nightly basis. And as good as these guys have been, they need a little reset button to kind of just get their batteries charged."

For the victors, who return to Carnesecca Arena for Thursday's regular season home finale against Xavier, the improvement is there, and peaking toward yet another crescendo as the corner of Union and Utopia prepares to embrace a third appearance in the field of 68 this decade.

"It's all about progress," Mullin reiterated. "No one ever pitches a perfect game. We've made steady progress, and it's been -- for me -- exciting, and the players made that happen. These guys are locked into playing for each other and playing to win, and I've always preached to them about the history and tradition at St. John's, and they take that very seriously. It's nice to see as we've progressed, the crowds have progressed. I think that's a tribute to the players."