St. John’s outdueled in second half as Auburn topples Johnnies in Players Era finale

Rick Pitino looks on as St. John’s was unable to sustain its defensive momentum in loss to Auburn Wednesday. (Photo by St. John’s Athletics)

By Jason Dimaio (@Jaydimaio)

LAS VEGAS — It is almost eerie how the Players Era Festival ended up mirroring St. John’s November experience of last season.

Last year, the Red Storm split its two contests at the Baha Mar Hoops Championship before losing a separate encounter to a Georgia team that would go on to make the NCAA Tournament. This time around, after a loss to Iowa State and convincing win over Baylor, déjà vu is the sad reality.

The 14th-ranked Johnnies will head back to Queens with losses in two of their three games in Sin City, dropping their final game before Thanksgiving in an 85-74 defeat at the hands of No. 21 Auburn on Wednesday.

In a game that saw its share of peaks and valleys, St. John’s (4-3) experienced mainly the latter, again failing to notch a victory over a Top 25 opponent for the fourth straight time in Rick Pitino’s two-plus years as head coach. The Red Storm was slow to come out of the gate, constantly coughing the ball up as Auburn made sure to get into the face of every player defensively, swiping at the Johnnies routinely in the hopes of landing a deflection or a steal. The aggressive and invasive pressure worked, as St. John’s committed five turnovers in the first four minutes.

“Not being prepared for their slapdown defense,” was how Pitino attributed the breakdowns. “Not creating the proper spacing. We’re a big preparation team, and we were not prepared for their slapdown tonight.”

The Red Storm defense was again suspect, partially due to Dylan Darling’s inability to keep Tahaad Pettiford in front of him. Pettiford, the Jersey City native, had a game-high 27 points against Darling, who was revealed after the game to have suffered a hamstring injury, per Pitino.

St. John’s had a size advantage entering Wednesday’s matchup, and it manifested itself after a shaky start. The Johnnies continued to feed Zuby Ejiofor in the post, and the senior forward was a key cog in the Red Storm’s first-half comeback. Ejiofor recorded 19 points in the opening stanza as St. John’s erased an early deficit to take a 39-30 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Out of the intermission, St. John’s shied away from its big men, attempting to make lightning strike twice with its three-point shooting after the marksmanship against Baylor proved successful. However, an encore could not be produced as Oziyah Sellers and Bryce Hopkins missed nine of the ten long-distance attempts between them.

“Overall, our upperclassmen just had a horrendous night shooting the basketball,” Pitino rued. “Going 5-for-24 with our fourth-year players, you’re not gonna win many games. It was, collectively, a bad night for just about our entire senior class. Those nights happen. Auburn took advantage of it and swung the game around.”

Darling would return to the game in the second half after sitting for a majority of the opening frame, but the decision to reinsert him may have proven costly. Auburn made sure to do its best to expose the wounded point guard, as Pettiford scored 10 straight points to swing the pendulum back toward the Tigers, who never trailed again after retaking the lead. Auburn made nine of its final eleven shots from the floor, shooting 64 percent after halftime en route to the victory.

“This is a very average defensive team,” Pitino reflected, noting that his guards need to buy in on both sides of the ball if St. John’s is to reach its ceiling. “They are not locked in like last year. I never thought this was a great team from day one defensively. It’s going to take a different mindset by some of our younger players. Scoring is not the ultimate, it’s defense and you gotta buy into it.”

St. John’s will have nine days to recalibrate before it returns to the floor one week from Saturday, facing a third SEC opponent in Ole Miss on December 6 at Madison Square Garden.