Posh Alexander’s 18 points and two-way toughness brought St. John’s back from 14-point deficit and seized win at UConn Monday. (Photo by USA Today Sports Images)
NEW YORK — Are you gonna wait for a sign, your miracle?
Stand up and fight
— Kenny Loggins, “This Is It”
For St. John’s, the first sign came with 12:46 remaining in regulation, the Red Storm having trailed longtime rival Connecticut by eight points at that juncture in Monday’s latest meeting between the two rivals.
It was at that point that UConn head coach Dan Hurley, citing St. John’s smaller lineup, made a substitution and lifted freshman Adama Sanogo from a game in which he had helped impose his will to give the hosts what appeared to be an unmatched advantage. But the scrappy Johnnies, led by freshman Posh Alexander, built on UConn’s shooting woes after a torrid start and slowly chipped away, eventually taking advantage to drive off to a 74-70 victory over the 23rd-ranked Huskies, the first for the program inside Gampel Pavilion since January of 2000, when Mike Jarvis, Erick Barkley and Bootsy Thornton would go on to win the Big East tournament two months later.
“We needed a win, period,” Mike Anderson assessed after St. John’s (8-7, 3-6 Big East) took its first lead at 64-63 on a Marcellus Earlington 3-pointer with 4:18 to play and never looked back on a day in which Julian Champagnie — the Big East’s leading scorer — struggled but still managed to amass 12 points. “I thought the game was another step in the right direction for our team in terms of where we want to be.”
“We’ve been in so many close games, where we were right in position to win it, and so confidence has to kick in when you’re playing against a UConn team that’s playing really well. And so for us, to come in off a tough loss to Marquette, I can’t say enough about the play of our guys.”
As for UConn, who opened up a 21-7 lead to start the proceedings in the absence of star guard James Bouknight, who continues to recover from elbow surgery? Hurley was left to lament one that got away, especially after the Huskies (7-2, 4-2 Big East) had chances to tie and win in the final seconds before Tyrese Martin missed a pair of free throws and Tyler Polley’s NBA-range three came up too strong.
“Brutal loss,” Hurley surmised. “Credit St. John’s, they’re relentlessly competitive, they were tougher than us, especially down the stretch. We obviously shot ourselves in the foot quite a bit there, with just our inability to guard the ball. Posh Alexander just absolutely destroyed us off the dribble, in both the first half and the second half.”
“They went so small in the last 10 minutes that we couldn’t play Adama,” he added, explaining his decision to pull Sanogo in the middle of a 49-41 lead. “Going zone and keeping him in just wasn’t an option, and then there was no one for him to guard. He’s probably the only good thing that happened today.”
His freshman forward, whose post presence resembled that of an upperclassman rather than an 18-year-old nine games into his career, a product of assistant coach Tom Moore's renowned work in developing big men, was cognizant of the decision behind not playing a role in the finish despite feeling he should be out there.
“At the end of the game, I think I should have played a little bit more,” Sanogo admitted. “But they were playing four guards, so it was a little bit tough for me to be in at the end of the game.”
Of the four guards employed by St. John’s, none were as ubiquitous on either end of the floor as Alexander, the Brooklyn native whose precocious development and prodigious talent signifies all the makings of a superstar over his next three years in Queens. His 18 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals only scratched the surface of his bulldog-like defense, which only ramped up in pressure as the game reached a crescendo.
“I know what I can do, and I like to get my team involved,” Alexander reaffirmed, looking all the part of an elite-level point guard against the Huskies. “If it comes down to a situation where Julian can’t get a bucket, I like to step up and take over, and try to lead my team to a win.”
“Posh didn’t practice yesterday,” Anderson cited after his floor general was still feeling the effects of a hard hit against Marquette in the second half Saturday, from which he remained in visible pain down the stretch, and perhaps contributed to Rasheem Dunn handling the ball on the Red Storm’s ill-fated final possession. “His tailbone was hurt and he was getting treatment, so for him to come out and have that kind of performance, it says a lot about him.”
The two teams in Monday’s game both hit the road next, UConn heading to Creighton Saturday after its Wednesday game against Xavier was postponed due to the Musketeers’ current pause, while St. John’s has nine days to regroup before facing DePaul in Chicago. The Huskies will use that time to reevaluate an offense that, for stages, looked stagnant without Bouknight and his 20 point-per-game average.
“That’s a problem, and it’s going to be a problem,” a blunt Hurley stated. “We can overcome that problem, but we can’t give up 74 points. We’re not winning a game like today, that’s played in the seventies, with some of the limitations that we have offensively. There’s no one that can come anywhere close to filling the role that James can fill, but we need more from some people to overcome it. You take one of the best players in the country off your team, and that’s going to cause a lot of problems. We don’t have a lot of natural scorers.”
In the visiting locker room, however, a much-needed confidence boost arrived and had the necessary effect for a team that, when firing on all cylinders, can compete with the majority of the Big East.
“I personally feel like we can beat every team in the country,” Alexander gushed. “Now we’re coming together a little bit more, so it feels good at the moment, but we’re going to get right back at it next week.”
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