Close, but no cigar: Pirates fight, fall to St. John’s

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEWARK, N.J. — St. John’s is having a season to remember under Rick Pitino. A big part of that is that the Red Storm has the likely player of the year in the Big East in Zuby Ejiofor. On Friday night, Seton Hall had its last good chance at a quality resume win, and had the good fortune of not having to face Ejiofor on the court for a large chunk of the game.

But the Pirates couldn’t make hay while the sun was shining, so to speak, and eventually, the Johnnies hit the shots necessary to pull away, thwarting one last comeback attempt in a 72-65 win at Prudential Center, clinching at least a share of the Big East regular season title for the second year in a row.

It was in one way an encouraging game for Seton Hall, yet again proving it can hang with the top teams in the Big East, particularly a Red Storm unit that hadn’t won back-to-back regular season crowns since the mid-1980s glory days. But it was also frustrating, as the Pirates just could not break through in front of a capacity crowd in Newark that heeded head coach Shaheen Holloway’s call earlier in the week.

“I thought we played hard, not smart,” Holloway said after the game. “The game plan was really simple: St. John’s is a really good team, obviously very well-coached. We knew they were going to clog the (driving) lanes up, and we had a bunch of drive-and-kicks that I thought we could have gotten easier shots, shots that we could make, and we just didn’t do that tonight. I thought that was a big difference.”

After Seton Hall got the first four points of the game, St. John’s showed why it was a Top 20 team in the nation, going on a 9-1 run that featured stingy man-to-man defense and excellent ball movement. The Red Storm led 16-9 after the first seven minutes of the contest, feeding Ejiofor every chance it got. 

Crucially, however, while the Pirates were able to claw their way back into the game when Ejiofor took his first rest of the game, outscoring the Red Storm 7-2, they were not able to do so after the big man picked up his second personal foul, going without a basket for the final 4:46 as the Red Storm received some excellent minutes from backup center Ruben Prey, who potted seven first half points to lead St. John’s to a 30-27 lead at halftime.

“The ‘Big Bells’ award went to Ruben Prey,” Pitino said after the game. “When Zuby was out — ‘resting’ — Ruben did a phenomenal job.”

“He was absolutely perfect, I would say,” Ejiofor added. “Ruben stepped up, hit some big-time shots in the post, and he played well defensively as well.”

After the break, it was more of the same. Ejiofor, who ended up with a team-best 21 points in only 23 minutes, picked up his third foul about three minutes into the second half, and would not re-enter the game until there were just under 10 minutes remaining in regulation. 

The Red Storm would expand its lead to nine points on a three-pointer by Oziyah Sellers about two minutes after the star forward hit the bench, but Seton Hall answered with a 7-0 run that included an and-1 from Najai Hines, who ended up with 11 points as one of three Pirates in double figures. The deficit yo-yoed between one and five points until Ejiofor returned for good, but could never get the game tied or jump in front.

“I thought we did a really good job in half-court defense,” Holloway said. “I thought our half-court defense was really good. But they had some runouts, and we had some plays, some bonehead plays on defense, like, ‘what are you doing?’”

Compounding those plays was a lack of shot making, a familiar problem for The Hall. While the Pirates kept themselves in it with hustle, outrebounding St. John’s 36-30 in the game and turning 14 offensive rebounds into 20 second-chance points, their shooting failed them, as they went just 1-for-11 from the three-point line.

The one made basket was by A.J. Staton-McCray as part of the aforementioned latest comeback attempt, slicing a six-point lead down to three with under one minute remaining, but that was as close as the Pirates got down the stretch. Staton-McCray ended up with 11 points in the game, but shot just 4-for-17 on his senior night, including a 1-for-7 mark from distance. 

Fellow shooter/scorer Tajuan Simpkins also couldn’t break out, ending up with five points on 1-for-8 shooting, while St. John’s got hot when it needed to, nailing five of nine triple tries in the second half after starting out 2-for-13 in the first.

Seton Hall now turns its attention to next week’s Big East tournament, now by everyone’s estimation needing to win the whole thing (and most likely needing to go through St. John’s again in the process) to make the NCAA Tournament. The Pirates have locked up the No. 4 seed, and will play either DePaul or Creighton on Thursday afternoon in the second game of the day.

Asked what his message to the team was heading into Madison Square Garden, Holloway was very matter-of-fact.

“I told them in the locker room, we don't like making things easy,” he said. “We like making things difficult and hard, so now we have to go in and take it. And the way you do it is you prepare the right way.”

Holloway couldn’t end the press conference without giving his team platitudes for fighting through all that difficult and hard, though.

“I think all our fans should be encouraged,” he added. “This team gave them everything they have. Everything. They played their tails off, everybody wrote us off, and they just kept on battling, battling. And I think that’s a great sign for us. I’m pleased about that. I’m sad about the loss, but I’m pleased (with) the way this team carried itself the whole year, and I’m looking forward to next week.”