Resilient Red Storm opens 2024 with seismic upset of No. 19 Marquette

Unique Drake’s 24 points keyed St. John’s upset of Marquette Wednesday. Red Storm has now won six of last eight. (Photo by Vincent Dusovic/St. John’s Athletics)

NEW YORK — With his team trailing Marquette by eight points late in the third quarter Wednesday, Joe Tartamella did something he admittedly shies away from in those situations.

The veteran St. John’s head women’s basketball coach, patiently watching his Red Storm players battle 19th-ranked Marquette in a seesaw game, called a timeout after a 13-5 run by the visiting Golden Eagles threatened to break a perpetually close game open with just over a minute remaining in the period.

Immediately following the stoppage, St. John’s cut its 47-39 deficit in half, and narrowly missed making it a two-point game when Jailah Donald’s runner came up just short at the buzzer to end the frame. The Red Storm carried its momentum into the final period, with Unique Drake scoring her team’s last nine points of the night to seal a 57-56 upset.

“Typically, I wouldn’t take (a timeout),” he revealed. I just felt we had the ball in hand and we weren’t doing much. I thought if we didn’t organize ourselves, it could be the end if they had another basket, so I was pleased that we were able to kind of gather ourselves and get our feet under us, even with a minute, whatever was left, to be able to just get enough stops to put us in position.”

“I thought it was ugly, but that’s how we have to play. I really thought the resilience we showed through the game — I liked the pace early, felt good about where we were at halftime — and then coming out in the third, we were able to stem the tide a little bit. The way that we closed, the stops that we had to get, the plays we had to make, I told these guys I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Drake, in particular, recognized the need to step up. The fifth-year senior and leading scorer singlehandedly erased a 56-52 margin in the final minutes of regulation, first on a 3-pointer before delivering the coup de grace on a step-back jumper to swing the pendulum one more time.

“Honestly, I knew I just had to make a play for my team,” said Drake, who finished with 24 points. “Once I got the space, I just put the ball up and it went in the basket.”

“I’m so proud of Unique,” Tartamella declared. “To watch her be able to have this type of game and this type of moment, and what she’s been building toward for five years has been really special.”

Since Amber Brown left the program in late November, St. John’s has navigated the schedule with just seven players seeing significant minutes in the rotation. While Skye Owen, who has blossomed as a supporting scorer alongside Drake, has said the loss of Brown has not triggered a major change within the team, Tartamella was proud to highlight the opportunities it has given some of his role players to step up and contribute since the Thanksgiving holiday.

“We’ve played more connected, we’ve played together,” he said. “I think we’ve just played better, it gave others opportunity. You’re watching Jailah Donald and Skye get more minutes. Phoenix (Gedeon) has become a player that we thought she could become in certain ways, she’s fighting and she’s playing. We’re just more connected as a group, and I think that’s what’s showing.”

“We need Ber’Nyah (Mayo) and Tara (Daye), and then Jailah was strong and played tough. That’s what we saw in these kids, and hopefully it can springboard us to continue to play the way we need to, and show up to practice with a mentality that every play matters and everything that we do is important.”

His counterpart Wednesday night, Marquette’s Megan Duffy, who also learned alongside Tartamella when both were assistants in Queens under Kim Barnes Arico, agreed.

“They're just connected, tough, really good defensively,” Duffy surmised. “Joe’s a really good coach, he’s done a really good job just keeping his kids together and getting them better. That’s the main thing when you have a new team with this portal and different team going on. It can take time to put your best team forward, and I think they’re moving in the right direction.”

St. John’s has tightened the screws defensively in its three Big East contests, allowing just 56 points per game in average against three of the better teams in the conference, Villanova, Creighton and Marquette. The offense is coming along, but the resilience Tartamella’s group has reflected thus far is perhaps the biggest indicator of what this group will ultimately label itself as league play resumes.

“The way that we’ve been struggling to score, every point matters for us this year,” he cautioned. “I’ve watched us fight back. I think it showed me a lot about who were going to be, and I think we’ve found that a little bit, and certainly a toughness level that we’ve shown, an ability to be able to get those stops.”

“We've gotten there, certainly a little bit longer than I anticipated it would take us, but we’re getting there. We’ve been building, we’re getting better. We still have a long way to go, and this win is great. We felt like being at home, we had chance to have a great opportunity, and I’m glad that we seized it and didn’t let it slip away.”