5 Takeaways: St. John’s struggles in narrow win over Rider

 

Vince Cole had 26 points, including go-ahead 3-pointer in final minute, as St. John’s came back from 11 points down to beat Rider. (Photo by Vincent Dusovic/St. John’s University Athletics)

By Anthony E. Parelli (@reportedbytheAP)

St. John’s final tuneup before Big East play was a gloomy revelation of the work to be done in the next three days.

 

The good news is that thanks to Vince Cole’s 12 points in the final 2:45 of regulation, the Red Storm was somehow able to defeat Rider, 82-79, at Carnesecca Arena on Tuesday. It was the teams’ first matchup in 25 years.

 

The bad news is, essentially, everything else.

 

The normally stingy St. John’s (5-1) defense allowed Rider – which lost to Syracuse by 35 points on Saturday and was picked to finished last in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference – to shoot 49.1 percent from the field, including an excruciating 11-for-24 on 3-point field goals.

 

Oddly, four of the first five possessions for St. John’s were a beauty. Greg Williams, Jr. hit a deep 3, Cole drained a tough mid-range jump shot, Posh Alexander scored on a drive and then a steal led to an Alexander alley-oop to Isaih Moore.

 

That would pretty much cap the positives for the Johnnies for much of the contest. 

 

After leading 35-33 at the break, a 3-ball from Rider’s Rodney Henderson, Jr. gave the Broncs an 11-point lead four minutes into the second half and prompted St. John’s coach Mike Anderson to call a timeout, in danger of the Red Storm being run out of its own gym. St. John’s responded, as a Julian Champagnie (18 points, 10 rebounds) dunk with 10 minutes left gave the Red Storm a 57-56 lead, but the Johnnies were never able to pull away.

 

Here are my five takeaways from the win:

 

Achilles Heel

St. John’s issues containing opponents’ guards were exemplified Tuesday, as the backcourt trio of Henderson, Dwight Murray, Jr. and Allen Powell combined for a blistering 56 points on 19-of-36 from the field. If the Red Storm want any chance of competing in the Big East, it simply cannot allow opposing guards to have that kind of success.

 

Pressure and poise

An Anderson-led team is going to consistently pressure, as that’s when St. John’s is at its best. There has to be a better balance, however, between forcing bad shots and turnovers and committing unnecessary fouls. After back-to-back stellar outings from Williams, the junior guard was rendered largely ineffective Tuesday, having to contend with foul trouble for virtually the entire contest. 

 

Line change

Early in the first half, Anderson subbed out all five of his starters for an almost four-minute stretch that saw St. John’s outscored by six. Yes, a deep rotation is key to his 40 Minutes of Hell game plan, but that was a puzzling rotational decision that sunk the Red Storm into a hole it was barely able to overcome.

 

Point-blank problems

While St. John’s has topped 76 points in all but one of its contests, that number has been misleading from an offensive standpoint. The first half of Tuesday’s game was the perfect example, as the Red Storm was able to get virtually any shot it wanted – and even grabbed 12 offensive rebounds – but shot the ball at just a 35 percent clip over the first 20 minutes, including an anemic 1-of-9 from deep. Thanks largely to Cole, Champagnie and an efficient outing from Marcellus Earlington (16 points on 7-of-8 shooting) those issues were able to be masked, but there’s simply no way to win against the more talented teams in the Big East if you can’t make layups.

 

There’s no place like home

At least not for Cole, who seems to morph into vintage Carmelo Anthony when he’s on the Carnesecca Arena hardwood. 

 

Cole led all scorers with 26 points, but he saved the best of his performance for the final minutes. With three minutes left, Cole scored six straight points via a 3-pointer and an and-one to put St. John’s ahead, 73-72. His 3-pointer with 30 seconds left gave St. John’s a four-point lead and his two free throws (on a day where the Red Storm were just 11-of-18 from the line) with seven seconds left iced the game for the Johnnies. Put simply, the Red Storm doesn’t win this game without the junior college transfer’s heroics.

 

Next up

St. John’s will start its conference slate on Friday, but not against UConn as originally scheduled. The Huskies are now on a COVID-19 pause for the second time this year. Instead, the Red Storm will travel to Newark and take on Seton Hall at 4:30 p.m. Seton Hall was originally slated to face DePaul in its Big East opener, but the Blue Demons have their own positive COVID-19 case in the program.

 

St. John’s has dropped eight of its last 10 against the Pirates, and Friday will be no easier in trying to slow 6-foot-11 forward Sandro Mamukelashvili, who is averaging 21 points and eight rebounds on the year.