St. John’s falls to Seton Hall in dismal loss as disappointing season continues
St. John’s was finally supposed to be looking down at Seton Hall in the Big East hierarchy. St. John’s had the highly regarded transfers, one of the top returning players in the conference and the established coach.
That, of course, was only on paper, and the Red Storm haven’t resembled all season the group that was supposed to compete for an NCAA Tournament berth. Their disappointing season continued Wednesday night, while the Pirates’ surge under first-year coach Shaheen Holloway took another step forward.
St. John’s blew a 13-point first-half lead and was overwhelmed over the final 10 minutes in a dismal 84-72 loss in front of 4,977 at Carnesecca Arena that further cast doubt on coach Mike Anderson’s future at the school.
One of the St. John’s transfers, Andre Curbelo, was ejected early in the second half after being assessed consecutive technical fouls. And the Red Storm’s point guard, Posh Alexander, was outplayed by fellow Brooklyn native Kadary Richmond.
Three days after St. John’s narrowly escaped a loss at home to dreadful Georgetown, it returned to its losing ways by again failing to do the little things. The Red Storm committed 15 turnovers, missed nine free throws and were hammered in the paint, 38-28, by the smaller Pirates. They were undisciplined and disorganized at both ends of the floor, out-executed by the far more patient Pirates.
With the loss, St. John’s (14-9, 4-8) is now just one game out of 10th place in the Big East and has dropped three of its last four games.
AJ Storr led St. John’s with 15 points, Alexander had 13 and David Jones scored 11. Joel Soriano’s recent struggles continued in a 2-for-8 shooting performance.
Al-Amir Dawes scored 21 points and Richmond notched 15 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists for Seton Hall (14-9, 7-5), which has now won seven of nine games. That started with a dominant win in Newark over St. John’s.
After a raggedy start that put his team down by five points less than seven minutes in, Anderson called timeout. Whatever he said during the break in action worked. St. John’s responded with a furious 19-3 run that was ignited by its defense. Over a span of 8:03, Seton Hall managed just three points and fell behind by 11.
The Pirates did rebound, putting together an 11-0 spurt of their own to get within two, and were behind by only three at the break after a sloppy opening 20 minutes for both teams. They combined for 17 turnovers, neither team shot better than 43 percent and they missed a combined 11 free throws.
Besides Storr’s 10 first-half points, continuing the freshman’s recent upward trend, the biggest bright spot was Alexander. After missing the last two games with an ankle injury, he came off the bench and looked spry. He had five points and was aggressive, frequently attacking and created offensive opportunities for his teammates.
But Seton Hall started the second half the way it finished the first, and went ahead on a Femi Odukale layup. And when Dawes hit a 3-pointer, the Pirates had outscored St. John’s 22-5 going back to the end of the first half. A few possessions later, emotions escalated between the two teams. It seemed to galvanize the Red Storm, who scored seven of the next nine points to go up by seven. But that didn’t last long. Seton Hall ripped off an 18-4 run to go ahead for good.
In the waning seconds, “Let’s Go Pirates” chants were heard throughout the building. A new low point in what has been an ugly year in Queens.
Sophomore Rafael Pinzon (ankle) remained out for St. John’s. Seton Hall was without senior wing Dre Davis (ankle).
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