Pirates bully St. John’s for fifth straight win

Al-Amir Dawes (2) led Seton Hall with 21 points as Pirates continued dominance of St. John’s Tuesday. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

NEWARK, N.J. — Seton Hall came into Tuesday’s return home on the heels of a pair of road wins that furthered an unlikely surge to the top of the Big East standings. Its opponent took the floor without its Hall of Fame coach and one of its top offensive options.

At the end of the day, the rising tide was lifted to a higher level.

Seton Hall jumped on St. John’s from the opening tip, pitching a shutout for the first five minutes against a Red Storm team that did not have head coach Rick Pitino after he tested positive for COVID three hours before tipoff, and also lost Jordan Dingle to an undisclosed illness. The visiting Johnnies would fight back to tie the game late in the first half, but a 28-0 run by the hosts that spanned nearly nine minutes of game time, bridging the end of the opening stanza with the start of the final frame, slammed the door on a comeback as the Pirates cruised to an 80-65 victory.

“Coming into the game, we knew they were going to bring some physicality into it,” Al-Amir Dawes said as his 21 points led Seton Hall (13-5, 6-1 Big East) to its fifth straight win since a December 23 loss at Xavier. “We were ready to rebound and be physical alongside them. We’re just good defenders. That’s what we do. We take the pressure head on and we push back, or we land the first punch. That’s what we did. We know what the game plan was, and we did a good job doing it.”

“They played their game,” St. John’s point guard Daniss Jenkins said of the Pirates. “That’s the way we should play. They play for steals, they play aggressive, they crash the glass and they know themselves on offense.”

Associate head coach Steve Masiello, filling in for Pitino, echoed Jenkins’ sentiment, crediting Shaheen Holloway for building a roster that has exemplified the qualities he highlights.

“I don’t think anyone in the country recruits better to fit their system than Seton Hall,” Masiello remarked. “They get guys who fit what Sha wants, they’re bought into it. I’ve known Sha a long time, I have a lot of respect for what he does and how he does things.”

Seton Hall’s supporting cast stepped up on a night where Kadary Richmond was limited to just 12 points on 4-for-14 shooting, getting 16 points and 10 rebounds from former Johnny Dylan Addae-Wusu and a career night from Elijah Hutchins-Everett, who tallied 14 points and seven rebounds.

Elijah Hutchins-Everett had career night Tuesday, scoring 14 points in Seton Hall’s win over St. John’s. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

“That’s my guy,” Dawes said of Hutchins-Everett, the Austin Peay transfer who has thrived as a change-of-pace big man off the bench to supplement Jaden Bediako. “We played AAU together, so I know what he’s capable of and I just wanted him to have his opportunity. He did well, he didn’t back down. He stepped up to the plate and he was ready when his name was called.”

“I’m happy with his defense and rebounding,” Holloway later said in praise of his center. “Once you do that, everything takes care of itself. He did that, he battled (Joel) Soriano, one of the best bigs in the country, and the rest is kind of history.”

St. John’s (12-6, 4-3 Big East) missed each of its first ten field goal attempts before a Soriano layup finally ended the dry spell. However, early foul trouble for Nahiem Alleyne and RJ Luis put an already undermanned Red Storm unit further behind the proverbial 8-ball, spotting Seton Hall a 13-2 lead eight minutes into the contest.

“We were supposed to come out with a lot more passion, hunger and toughness with all the adversity we were facing,” Jenkins recounted. “We knew the way we needed to come out and punch from the jump, and we didn’t do it. We just didn’t grasp that.”

Daniss Jenkins (5) led St. John’s with 17 points in loss to Seton Hall. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

“It was terrible from each and every one of us,” the fifth-year senior said of his team’s effort. “That’s unacceptable, especially coming off a tough road loss like (Saturday at Creighton). They came out and punched us, and we never fought back from the beginning. We tried to, but it was too late.”

Still, the visitors chipped away at the double-digit deficit, ripping off a 10-0 run to get within one point of the Pirates and ultimately drew level late in the first half on a Jenkins triple. Seton Hall would respond with 14 straight points to break the deadlock, punctuating the outburst with consecutive threes from Dawes and Addae-Wusu to fuel a 38-24 halftime cushion.

“We didn’t step up to the challenge tonight,” Masiello surmised. “When we got hit, I thought we didn’t respond the way we were capable of. We didn’t do what we needed to do on the court, so that’s frustrating.”

“We didn’t respond from it well. Us as an organization and as a group, we have to respond better. We have to own that and be better, simple as that. No one’s going to make excuses.”

The spiral only went downward for the Red Storm coming out of the locker room, as the Pirates poured it on with a 3-point barrage from Addae-Wusu, Hutchins-Everett and Dawes not even three minutes removed from the intermission to match their run to end the first half with another 14 unanswered markers.

“We knew coming out of halftime, we needed to come out swinging,” Jenkins intimated. “It was almost as if we went the other way. Instead of fighting back, it’s like we just gave in. That team just punked us. That’s all they did.”

Seton Hall waltzed to victory in the second half, adding St. John’s to a conference haul that already includes UConn, Providence, Marquette, Georgetown and Butler. The Pirates have garnered more respect heading into Saturday’s matchup with 18th-ranked Creighton, but are not buying into the hype of potentially being ranked themselves with a win. Instead, the blue-collar crew embodying the image of their leader demands it continue to be overlooked, in some aspects.

“It stays the same,” Holloway said of his group’s mantra. “If you know me, you’ll understand why we’re never gonna have that mindset. Our mindset is always gonna be (that) we’ve got something to prove. We’ve got a chip on our shoulder, never get greedy, never get satisfied, stay humble, stay low-key.”

“We still want to be counted as the underdogs,” Dawes proclaimed. “They didn’t believe we could be here, and us together, we believe that. We know we’ve got a talented group of guys and we know what we could do. We still want to be the underdogs. We still want to play with that chip on our shoulder.”