Same old Johnnies.
It’s difficult to point to one thing that plagues St. John’s in late-game situations, but whatever it is, it had better get fixed in a hurry.
The Red Storm fell, 97-94, on the road to Georgetown in overtime Sunday, and are already in danger of repeating last season’s horrific start to conference play.
St. John’s (5-3, 0-2) made everything look difficult Sunday. After falling behind by seven early in the first half, the Red Storm eventually forced its preferred pace and battled back, but gave up a 9-0 run at the 10-minute mark. Somehow, the Johnnies went into the half trailing by just two — at 42-40 — despite only making 10-of-22 layup attempts and allowing the Hoyas to shoot 58.6 percent from the field and connect on five of nine 3-point attempts.
The second half started much better defensively, with St. John’s forcing five turnovers in the first five minutes. At different points during the final 20 minutes of regulation, the Red Storm held leads of 55-46, 60-53, and eventually, 82-75 with just 2:30 to play. From there, a foul in the backcourt, followed by two careless turnovers on inbound passes, allowed Georgetown to take an 88-86 lead with just nine seconds remaining.
On what looked like its final possession, Vince Cole tried to force a shot near the basket, but a Qudus Wahab block went out of bounds off the Hoyas with 0.9 seconds left. Miraculously, Posh Alexander found Greg Williams, Jr. with a bounce pass under the basket. Williams spun and hit a floater to send the game to overtime tied at 88.
Again, St. John’s came out of the abbreviated break inspired, scoring the first four points of the extra period, but the more poised Georgetown team closed out the contest on a 9-2 run.
St. John’s last gasp came down two points with two seconds left. After Williams missed the back end of two free throw attempts, Isaih Moore grabbed the offensive board and went up for the tie, where Wahab made the last of his outrageous nine rejections.
Here are my five takeaways from the loss:
Mixed bag
There are a couple of ways to look at Sunday’s performance from Moore. On one hand, the former junior college All-American had his best statistical performance of the year, finishing with 26 points and 14 rebounds, including seven offensive boards. On the other, however, his slight build allowed Georgetown’s Wahab to bully him down low to the tune of 17 points and 10 rebounds, just a blocked shot away from a triple-double.
Moore can run the floor exceptionally for a big man and has shown an ability to score in bunches when he isn’t forcing shots, but his size is going to be a liability with the physicality of Big East play. While he can focus on bulking up in the offseason, he’ll need to work on positioning himself better in order to use his 7-foot-4 wingspan to alter shots in the meantime.
Rotation issues
Early in the season, coach Mike Anderson regularly gave all of his scholarship players minutes, presumably to see what he had and find different lineups that worked. Sunday was the first time that he really shortened his bench, which is to be expected, but some of his decisions were questionable at best. For instance, Marcellus Earlington had seven points in the first half, and his ability to score from deep drew Wahab away from the basket. Earlington was held to just three points in the second stanza, largely because he was kept off the floor. Rasheem Dunn is another example of someone that was curiously left on the bench for much of crunch time. While he didn’t have his best day from a scoring standpoint, his ball handling and experience could have provided stability as the St. John’s lead slipped away.
And what’s the deal with Josh Roberts? The junior started virtually every game last season, but didn’t see the floor Sunday. While he has his offensive deficiencies, his athleticism, motor and experience in Big East play should be more than enough reason to give him minutes.
Anderson admirably accepted blame after the loss, but needs to use the next three days to figure out a better plan of action.
Budding rivalry
It turns out St. John’s isn’t the only team with a scrappy freshman guard. Posh Alexander had a very nice game for the Red Storm, finishing with 16 points, three rebounds, six assists and two steals. His counterpart, Hoya freshman Dante Harris, finished with 22 points, three rebounds, two assists and three steals. The next four years should be a lot of fun with that duo going head-to-head.
Balanced attack
If you’re looking for a silver lining, it’s this: The St. John’s offense can produce without Julian Champagnie leading the way. The sophomore forward had a good game – 13 points and 12 rebounds – but without him lighting up the scoreboard, the Red Storm still found a way to manufacture points. All told, five St. John’s players – Moore (26), Alexander (16), Champagnie (13), Williams (13) and Earlington (10) – finished in double digits.
Stop the bleeding
Here’s the bottom line: St. John’s has to figure out how to win, and it has to figure it out fast. There cannot be a repeat of what happened last season in Big East play, where the Johnnies started out 3-12 after an impressive 11-2 non-conference slate. With abbreviated schedules due to COVID-19, there is no cushion, and thus, no room for that kind of slide. This team has talent, depth and experience, but there are no easy games in the Big East, if it wants to find a way into the NCAA Tournament, that urgency must start now.
Next up
The good news is there isn’t much time to dwell on this loss, as St. John’s has just three days to prepare for its next game. The bad news is that game comes against Creighton, the 8th-ranked team in the country.
The Johnnies will welcome the Bluejays to Carnesecca Arena on Thursday at 5 p.m. and if they can’t quell some of the issues plaguing them, it could get ugly early.
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