5 Takeaways: St. John’s loses 16-point lead, falls to Butler in OT

By Anthony E. Parelli (@reportedbytheAP)

The road to March Madness just got a whole lot tougher for St. John’s.

 

Coming into Tuesday’s contest as the hottest team in the Big East, the Red Storm blew an early lead and couldn’t execute down the stretch, falling to basement-dwelling Butler, 76-73, in overtime. It was the seventh straight loss for St. John’s at Hinkle Fieldhouse, dating back to 2014, and snapped a six-game win streak for the Johnnies.

 

Like Saturday’s win at Providence, St. John’s (13-8, 7-7 Big East) bolted to an early lead as seven players scored in the first 10 minutes and five rim-rattling dunks from Isaih Moore off the bench helped the Red Storm to a 16 point first-half lead. 

 

Also like Saturday, however, the Johnnies let their opponent erase that early lead, as an 18-4 run by Butler left St. John’s up just 40-32 at the half. It was the first time this season that the Red Storm lost when leading at the break.

 

Offensive woes led to defensive breakdowns in the second half, and Butler eventually climbed all the way back to take a two-point lead with eight minutes left. Rasheem Dunn’s pullup jumper with just over a minute left tied the game at 66 and Dylan Addae-Wusu gave the Red Storm a 68-66 lead with just 30 seconds left.

 

After Butler couldn’t convert at the other end, it seemed St. John’s would be able to escape with an ugly win, but Addae-Wusu couldn’t connect on inbound pass to Dunn, resulting in a turnover and Bulldog timeout with just eight ticks left. From there, Butler guard Aaron Thompson split Posh Alexander and Julian Champagnie, easily getting to the rim to tie the game.

 

Overtime was more of the same sporadic play for the Johnnies. Addae-Wusu’s layup and Champagnie’s ensuing and-one gave the Red Storm a one-point lead with 2:30 to play. Down one with a minute left, Champagnie was stripped in the lane and two free throws from Myles Tate put Butler up three. 

 

A bizarre sequence saw Dunn miss a free throw, but Butler turned it over on a two-on-one at the other end. Down three and gasping for life, Addae-Wusu’s drive attempt went array and eventually out of bounds on Butler before Champagnie and Alexander’s last-ditch 3-pointers missed the mark.

 

Here are my takeaways from the loss:

 

Slowing things down

St. John’s entered Tuesday’s contest as the fastest team in the Big East in terms of pace, while Butler came in as the slowest. Early on, St. John’s was able to push its preferred pace and build a lead, but once Butler slowed things down, it was able to force defensive breakdowns and offensive ineptitude from the Red Storm. St. John’s just can’t compete with bigger, slower teams, and it isn’t meant to. The Johnnies need to figure out how to speed the game up when things start going wrong.

 

Mixed bag

It’s tough to judge Dunn’s performance in the loss. On one hand, the senior guard played virtually every minute, tallied 12 points and five assists and hit several big-time jump shots. On the other, he shot just 6-of-13 from the field, committed the backbreaking turnover at the end of regulation and missed the front end of a crucial one-and-one in overtime.

 

To his credit, Dunn has been as big a reason as anyone for St. John’s recent run, but the fifth-year senior needs to be near-perfect with the amount of responsibility currently on his plate.

 

Finding his spot

When Greg Williams, Jr. got injured last month, he was the team’s second-leading scorer and the primary offensive complement to Champagnie. In his absence, Alexander took over that role, leaving Williams as a rotational piece since his return to action last week against Villanova, unable to contribute as much as was expected of him earlier in the season. 

 

It could be that coach Mike Anderson is easing the junior back in as he recovers from his back injury, but Williams is too good and too important to not have a defined role where he can be a factor every night.

 

Problems down low

It’s no secret St. John’s can be beat inside, but it had done a much better job during its six-game win streak of minimizing opponents’ chances. Butler was able to take advantage, however, grabbing 13 offensive boards and outrebounding the Red Storm, 40-33, in the contest. 

 

Defensively, too many miscommunications and late rotations led to easy baskets at the rim, something Anderson has to fix before the final stretch.

 

What now?

The dream isn’t dead, as there’s still plenty of time for the Johnnies to regroup and do enough damage over its last five (or six, depending on whether or not the postponed UConn game is made up) games to sneak back into the NCAA Tournament. The Red Storm is now tasked with showing whether it is for real or not. 

 

Next up

St. John’s gratuitously will have a week to lick its wounds and get healthy before returning home to face Xavier next Tuesday. The Musketeers downed the Red Storm, 69-61, back on January 6 and currently sit third in the Big East, but have played just two games over the last month due to COVID issues.