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| Chas Kelley III taking a three-pointer that put BC up 76-70 late. Photo by Jason Schott. |
The St. John's Red Storm saw their four-game losing streak end in a brutal loss late to Boston College, 86-80, on Sunday evening in the NABC Showcase at Barclays Center.
The whole game came down to a series of streaks in the second half, with Boston College having the final say.
St. John's, now 6-3 on the season, was trailing 42-38 in the opening stages of the second half when they went on a 14-0 run over two minutes and 36 seconds to go up 52-42 on a Joel Soriano bucket at the 14:55 mark.
BC responded with a 19-4 run over the next four-and-a-half minutes, capped by a Prince Aligbe dunk off a turnover, to take a 61-56 lead with 10:22 left.
St. John's then went on a 10-0 run over the next 2:27, capped by a pair of Soriano free throws, to go back up five, 66-61, with 7:56 on the clock.
Boston College responded with a 10-2 run, and then an elongated 15-4 clip capped by a three from Chas Kelley III, to go up 76-70 with 3:11 remaining.
The Eagles really sealed it when Claudell Harris Jr. was hacked across both arms by Chris Ledlum on a three-point attempt. He sank all three free throws to give BC a commanding 83-75 lead with just 1:41 left.
Boston College was led by Harris Jr. who had 14 points off the bench, on 4-9 shooting, including 2-5 on three pointers, with four assists and two rebounds. Quinten Post also had 14 points (6-11 shooting, 1-1 on threes), with 11 rebounds and nine assists - he was one assist away from a triple-double. Jaeden Zackery rounded out the trio of Eagles with 14 points (7-10 FG), with three rebounds and three assists.
St. John's was led by Soriano, who had 21 points on 8-12 from the field, 1-1 on three-pointers, with 11 rebounds to give him a double-double, and an assist. Chris Ledlum also had a double-double with 16 points (8-19 FG, 0-2 threes) and 11 assists, with three assists. Daniss Jenkins had 10 points (5-13 FG, 0-4 threes), eight assists, and three rebounds, while Jordan Dingle and Glenn Taylor Jr. also had 10 points apiece.
Pitino Postgame: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino referenced BC's 19-4 run in his postgame comments, as he said, "When we are up 10, coming out of the timeout, I said 'look they are going to come with threes. We have to stop the three and get out and get your hands active.' They made three threes in a row.
"We are not going to win until we get committed to defense and this group is not. It's partially our fault, we recruited offensive basketball players, trying to teach [older players] about defense, and it cost us tonight. When you take all the offensive rebounds and the fact that they shot [52.9 percent]. They were scoring almost every time down the floor. [Our players] are trying to win with offense and you can't win with offense.
"We are very disappointed. With a 10-point lead, you have to play great defense and we didn't and we paid for it. We are pressing like I want most of the time, but the half-court defense is such a disappointment."
On the team's defense: "We have good enough athletes, but defense is a matter of will. You have to want to play defense. If you make a change and tell a guy to blitz and he stays behind him, it's frustrating. But the first year is all frustrations, that's what you get. It's not young players not being committed to defense, it's the entire team."
On tonight's game: "It's very difficult When you have a 10-point lead, you are not supposed to lose it. It's been difficult from the summer until now with defense. It's a broken record. Give a lot of credit to Boston College, they made a lot of good shots down 10. You have to give credit to them as well."
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