St. John's Outlasts Butler In A Battle That Had Bitter Finish

RJ Luis Jr. slamming one home in the opening minutes. Photo by Jason Schott.

 

The St. John's Red Storm outlasted Butler, 70-62, in their biggest defensive battle of the season, on Saturday afternoon on Lou Carnesecca Day at the arena named for him on campus.

Sunday would have been Carnesecca's 100th birthday, so this day was intended to be a celebration of that before he passed away on Saturday, November 30. 

Photo by Jason Schott.

St. John's improved to 3-1 in Big East play, and 12-3 overall, which is significant because 20 to 22 wins is generally what you need to make the NCAA Tournament.

This game was slow to get any type of rhythm, with the first half producing some eye-popping numbers. Butler led it 29-25 at halftime, while they shot 37.5 percent (12-32) from the field, and 22.2 percent (2-9) from behind the arc. St. John's, in arguably the worst half they played all season, shot just 29.7 percent (11-37) overall, and 10 percent (1-10) on three-pointers. 

In the second half, Butler opened up a seven-point lead, 36-29, on a Patrick McCaffery layup at the 18:00 mark. 

St. John's responded with a 10-0 run, as their offense started to break out. Zuby Ejiofor had seven of their ten points in the stretch.

At 13:42, Deivon Smith forced a turnover, but he missed his jump shot, and Ejiofor was there to snatch the offensive rebound and put in his layup to make it 45-38 St. John's. By this point, it was a 16-2 run for the Red Storm.

After Simeon Wilcher made a jumper (pictured below) at 11:12 that made it 47-43, McCaffery buried a pair of three-pointers to put Butler back ahead, and cap an 11-2 run for the Bulldogs. 

Photo by Jason Schott.

Fittingly, the game was tied at 55 with 5:05 remaining, and St. John's took over. 

RJ Luis Jr. slammed one home at the 4:48 mark, then Kadary Richmond got a basket off a fast break after a turnover, and then his layup at 2:49 made it 61-58 Red Storm.

St. John's opened up an eight-point edge, at 66-58, on a pair of Luis free throws with 1:11 left.

That basically put the game in the bag for the Red Storm, which made what happened a minute later all the more absurd.

In the final seconds, St. John's had the ball with the shot clock turned off and Butler walking off the floor. 

That was when Simeon Wilcher thought it would be a good time to try out a dunk like you would see on Saturday night of NBA All-Star weekend. He bounced it in front of him into the air, and leaped up to grab it and slam it home. Fittingly, it rimmed out, but that did nothing to remove the anger from St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino's face as he left the floor, and as he opened his postgame press conference.

"Well, first of all, I would like to apologize to (Butler Head Coach) Thad Matta and the coaching staff," Pitino said. "What happened at the end was really embarrassing to me, St. John's, and everybody affiliated with us - an embarrassment. 

"I'm really pleased with the win, and clearly, young people are different, I'm struggling with it...I'm really struggling with a lot of things, Listening; the work ethic's great, the listening is really bothering me. So many things are bothering me right now. I gave up drinking for New Year's, but I think that will go down as the shortest resolution in history. Coaching this team will age me about 20 years with the listening part."

Pitino added later, "I wasn't pleased tonight at the end of the game, at all, don't understand it. If he would have made it, and it went in, he would have been nationally ridiculed, so why would somebody want to be nationally ridiculed? It lacks common sense to me."

BACK TO THE GAME: St. John's was led by RJ Luis Jr., who had 20 points - 12 in the second half - on 9-19 from the field, with 11 rebounds to give him a double-double, with four steals. 

Zuby Ejiofor had 14 point, all of which came in the second half, on 4-7 shooting, 6-8 on free throws, with eight rebounds and two steals. Deivon Smith had 13 points (4-12 FG, 5-5 FT), with six rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Kadary Richmond had 11 points (5-12 FG), with six rebounds, six assists, and three steals.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino also addressed these topics in his postgame press conference:

On his team's three-point shooting: "I wanted them to take it, which is fine. Look when you go 1-for-21 and you win the game, and you're not doing very many things right, that speaks volumes of what you're all about. I think that they were all good threes. There weren't any bad ones, they were wide open. We'll continue to work on it."

On Kadary Richmond at the end of the game: "I think he took over the game at that time, but I think he needs to do that from the opening tip to the end of the game. That's the way he needs to play and he did take over. He was responsible for this win tonight, but he needs to do that the whole game."

On Kadary Richmond and Zuby Ejiofor: "I think they were very smart. We had them (Butler) in foul trouble. When they got them in foul trouble, we went inside and continued to break it inside, take it to the rim and get fouled. They used their intelligence at the end of the game by going to the foul line."

On Butler: "In the second, especially the last eight minutes of the game, we played with a high basketball acumen and we won a tough game. What I told the guys is, 'Look, this is going to be a tough basketball game. This team lost to Connecticut by four, beat Mississippi State, beat SMU and had three quad-one wins.'...We've got the athletes and (Butler) has the shooters. The athletes won tonight; maybe the shooters win another night."

On the Big East: "Every game is going to be a war in the Big East. It's not like last year. You see what Georgetown is doing right now (The Hoyas are 12-2 overall and 3-0 in conference play). Xavier is good. Look, (Jahmyl) Telford, (Pierre Brooks), (Patrick) McCaffery are really improved, and we did a very good job on (Andre Screen) tonight. It's a great conference. It's a war. Winning on the road is very difficult and if you can win four or five games on the road, it's going to be a great year for you."