St. John's Holds Off Harvard

 

Kadary Richmond burying a jumper with 4:45 left in the first half that put St. John's up 28-17. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm had a tougher than expected game on Saturday night at Carnesecca Arena, as they held off Harvard, 77-64.

The Red Storm, who received votes this week's AP and USA Today Top 25 polls, improved to 6-2 on the season in their first action back in New York after dropping two of three games in the Bahamas last weekend.

St. John's came out firing, as they raced out to a 9-0 lead and kept Harvard off the board for the first three minutes and 31 seconds.

That lead would extend to 24-8 at the 7:44 mark of the first half when Jaiden Glover - who came off the bench in place of Deivon Smith, who was out for disciplinary reasons - buried a three-pointer.

Harvard then made a 13-6 run to get back into the game and pull within nine, at 30-21, and they would get as close as seven before Glover buried a three-pointer, off a Harvard turnover, as time expired to send St. John's into the half with a 40-28 edge.

Jaiden Glover (11) being embraced by his teammates as they exit the court after his buzzer beater. Photo by Jason Schott.

That momentum continued into the start of the second half, which St. John's opened on a 6-0 run to go up 18 points, 46-28. 

Harvard got back into it, and they were within eight, 63-55, when Robert Hinton buried a jumper outside the paint at 5:40.

This was the kind of game that, though they didn't play their best, St. John's stepped up when needed. Over the next four minutes, Kadary Richmond had a couple of layups, and RJ Luis Jr. had a dunk and a layup, followed by a Brady Dunlap layup at 1:30 that made it 75-61 Red Storm.

St. John's held on for the win despite shooting just 1-13, or 7.7 percent, from behind the arc in the second half, and overall, they shot a bit better, at 42.1 percent, or 16-38 from the field. Their defense held Harvard to 37.9 percent shooting (11-29) overall, and 35.3 percent (6-17) in the final 20 minutes.

RJ Luis Jr., as he had most of this season, led St. John's with 24 points on 9-18 from the field, including 1-5 on three-pointers, with 10 rebounds to give him a double-double, four assists, and a steal.

Kadary Richmond had 18 points on 8-14 shooting, with eight rebounds, four assists, and a steal. Simeon Wilcher had 12 points (4-8 FG, 2-5 threes), three rebounds, two steals, and an assist. Jaiden Glover had 11 points (4-10 FG, 3-8 threes), three assists, and two rebounds off the bench.

Harvard was led by Chandler Pigge, who had 15 points on 5-10 from the field, including 2-4 on three-pointers, with seven rebounds and five assists. Robert Hinton, Evan Nelson, and Louis Lesmond had 11 points each.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: "Teams like Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia right now give us a little bit of a problem. They're five out and they cause problems for us defensively because we're a 'help' team. We load up on help, and they can cause problems for you; they did a good job tonight. Really proud of the way Brady (Dunlap) played, and gave us a big lift with his hustle. You look at the stat sheet, you say, 'he has two points,' but so far, this is really one of his best games because he wouldn't let them get back in the game with his incredible hustle. I thought Jaiden (Glover), for a freshman, did a very good job. We just didn't get a whole lot of four and five's tonight; that's pretty much because of the spread. We'll take it, it's a good win for us coming off a long trip, and now got a week to get ready for a very good Kansas State team." (at Carnesecca Arena next Saturday, December 7 at 11:30 AM)

Rick Pitino seemingly following Kadary Richmond up the floor early in the game. Photo by Jason Schott.

On Jaiden Glover stepping up: "With Deivon (Smith) out, we had to go with Jaiden at backup point. He worked all week, and sometimes there's a silver lining behind every cloud, and the silver lining was we got to work Jaiden at the point, he got playing time, and I think he did very well, at least in the first half. He struggled just a little bit defensively; every freshman I've ever coached does that."

On three-point shooting becoming a concern, especially with the 1-13 in the second half: "I think there's some mechanical problems with our three-point shooting that can be corrected. I think Aaron (Scott) takes too long to get his shot off, but he's a very good shooter based on all of our numbers that we use. I think RJ doesn't shoot it normal, he tries to get extra arc, which is not necessary because he has a natural shot that creates arc. I think Brady, in the first, I think he was just hunting shots to try and help the team, instead of just keep moving like John Havlicek back in your time, so I think it's correctable with those guys. I think the other guys just need a lot of work. I don't think it's bad, I just don't think it's an asset for us."

On how, with St. John's up eight points late, Kadary Richmond and RJ Luis had eight-point spurt late to put the game away, and if that's what we should expect to see: "I think it was obvious from the first moment of the game Kadary was set to play better. Now, I will say, both guys did not play good defense tonight, Kadary and RJ both, they did not play good defense - wasn't terrible, it wasn't good defense. But, I think Kadary was locked in, you know what I think of RJ's game. I told RJ, 'you've got to shoot threes from the flow. As soon as you catch it, you're open, flow right into the shot. You don't think about whether I should shoot it, extra arc, you flow it, step in, and let it go,' and he's not doing that right now. He's a better shooter than that."

On Kadary Richmond's fitness and conditioning, and if it's something they knew about when they brought him in: "Well, he's in decent shape, but to play with the type of pressure defense and pushing the pace on everything, for a guy that's never done that, it just takes some time. He's in good shape, he's not in great shape. I think Aaron right now, because he had a terrible cold, he battled that for about a week, he lost a little bit of his conditioning. 

"We look at this game, we didn't play great, we didn't play bad, we got a big lift out of certain people, but I thought, individually, guys made big plays on offense. I think Kadary made big plays, RJ made big plays, I think Zuby (Ejiofor) in the second half made big plays, but I'll go home tonight and say Brady Dunlap was our MVP, and nobody else will agree with that, but I thought he was."

LOU CARNESECCA: Just hours after the game, St. John's announced that legendary Head Coach Lou Carnesecca passed away at the age of 99. Please click here for our coverage.