Wednesday, January 22, 2025

St. John's Racks Up Another Stunning Second Half Win

 

Kadary Richmond taking a jumper at the top of the key to give St. John's a 69-65 edge in overtime. Photo by Jason Schott.


The St. John's Red Storm scored another comeback win on Wendesday night at Madison Square Garden, as they outlasted Xavier, 79-71, in overtime.

The Red Storm improved to 17-3 overall, and 8-1 in Big East play, their best start in conference play since they opened the 1998-99 season with the same mark.

St. John's entered this one with the best record in the Big East, and they held an 18-16 lead with 8:54 remaining in a first half that was slow to develop.

Xavier responded with a 7-0 run, and that started a surge that saw them open up a 14-point edge, 40-26, with 1:30 left in the frame.

St. John's was able to pull to within 10, at 40-30, at halftime, despite shooting 34.4 percent (11-32) from the field, including 1-9 on three-pointers. Xavier shot a perfect 50 percent from the field, or 13-26, and that included 4-6 from behind the arc.

In the second half, St. John's found themselves down as many as 16 points, at 50-34, before they went on an 8-0 run to pull within six points on a Zuby Ejiofor dunk at the 10:39 mark.

RJ Luis completed this layup at 12:41 that cut Xavier's lead to 52-44. Photo by Jason Schott.


Xavier went back up by nine points on a couple instances, but after the second one, when it was 58-49 at 9:36, St. John's responded with a 14-2 run to take a 63-60 lead with 3:30 left. 

That came on a thrilling sequence in which Kadary Richmond had a layup at 3:41, which was followed by a steal by RJ Luis Jr., and he put it back in to complete essentially a four-point trip down the court.

The scene at The Garden after the thrilling sequence and R.J Luis Jr.'s basket. Photo by Jason Schott.

Unlike some of St. John's other comeback wins, where they never look back, Xavier would respond. Ryan Conwell buried a three-pointer to tie it at 63 with 3:11 remaining, and then each team was only to get a basket each the rest of the way to send the game to overtime tied at 65.

St. John's shot 60.9 percent, or 14-23, from the field, in the second half, while holding Xavier to 35.7 percent, or 10-28, including 4-13 from behind the arc. St. John's missed the only two three-point attempts they made in the second half, while going a perfect 7-7 from the free-throw line.

St. John's opened overtime in dominant fashion, as they started it with an 8-0 run, with Ejiofor scoring six of those points. 

Xavier would pull back within four, at 73-69, but St. John's kept getting to the free throw line, and one from Simeon Wilcher with 32 seconds left put them up 77-70.

Kadary Richmond led St. John's in this one, with 19 points on 9-17 from the field, with seven rebounds, five assists, and three steals.

Zuby Ejiofor, Simeon Wilcher, and RJ Luis each had 16 points apiece. Zuby shot 7-11, while racking up eight rebounds, one assist, and a steal. Wilcher was 5-10 from the field, including 1-4 from the three-point line, the only one the Red Storm made on the night; with three assists, two rebounds, and a steal. Luis Jr. shot 5-13, with seven rebounds, two assists, and a steal. The uncharacteristic thing was that Luis committed six turnovers, while Wilcher committed four.

Xavier was led by Ryan Conwell, who had 21 points on 7-19 from the field, including 4-9 from behind the arc, with three rebounds, two steals, and an assist. Dailyn Swain had 16 points on 6-8 shooting, with five rebounds and five assists.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game:

On Kadary Richmond's performance: "I liked his stamina. I think he's now in great shape. I thought the defense we played down 16, in overtime was magnificent."

On coming back from down 16 points to win: "Tonight, this team, we go outplayed. Tonight, they were the better team for most of the game. They really needed the game. They're coming off three wins, a Marquette victory. We, for the first time this year, did not execute our defensive scouting. But we said at halftime, 'Look, give them credit. They're playing great. They're executing. They're taking advantage of certain things.' I said, 'Just possession by possession. Let's come back and win this game.' And our press bailed us out when it was very close; we went up one or two points. Our press bailed us out. That one spurt with our press gave us a big lift. Kadary was great the entire night without a turnover, playing that many minutes (43:58 out of 45). He's getting better and better from a conditioning standpoint. But we got to give Xavier a lot of credit because they outplayed us most of the game."

On the importance of winning this one: "Well, we needed the win as much as Xavier. We had to have this win. You know, it's the most important thing for us, is to keep improving and keep winning. We cannot take losses. It's a non-negotiable thing for us, and that's the attitude we have, and that's where we come back. I think these guys have a great fear of losing, a great fear, and that's a good thing."

On this team's ability to constantly come back in the second half: "A lot of teams, when they get down 16, get down 14, really hang their heads. It's just the opposite with these guys, and that goes back to their fear of losing, and they just dig in and dig in and played magnificent when the game was on the line and we had to dig in. We made every great defensive play, which we didn't do in the first, first 28 minutes."

A follow-up to his "fear of losing" comment: "I don't think it's cause of me at all. I think they have their goals, and they want to reach their goals. I think they knew tonight I was disappointed at halftime with the way they were defending and the scouting standpoint, not from a hustle standpoint. We were just doing the wrong things, and sometimes with young people, when they score up on offense, they lose their thought process on defense, and that was the case with RJ a little bit. 

"They have a fear of losing because they want to win badly, and that's the culture of the second year. You know, when you talk about the second year, everything we talk about from the summer is just about winning. You know, ego, ego is, you know, there's a book about ego I'm sure you all read about ego being the enemy, whether it's coaching, whether it's playing, ego stops people; they get delusional. With big egos, they get delusional, they think they're better than they are, they don't bring it every day. 

"We're a humble group. We all know what it's going to take to win, and we don't have that ego, and ego truly is edging greatness out, in a spiritual sense, it's edging God out, but ego is what kills every team. It kills every coach, it kills every athlete. If you stay humble, you're going to learn, get better, and I just give - you know, I don't work harder than any other coach. My staff works their butts off, but every staff does. We recruited people that want to win, so we've done a good job in recruiting because we got people who want to win. Our coaching staff is very humble, our players are very humble, they want to get better, and I think one of the big keys is humility. I talk about it over and over and over and over. If you have humility, you're going to get better. If you have an ego, you're going to get delusional."

On the crowd of 14,545 inside Madison Square Garden: "This was a  crowd that marketing deserves a lot of credit. The Garden deserves a lot of credit, because they did a great job. It's five degrees out there, but we got it rolling right now and winning does that. Look, this is New York. It's all about winning. In New York, if you win, they're going to show up. And we know that. And we're winning right now. We're bringing St. John's back to where it needs to be. It's a shame Lou (Carnesecca) is not alive; he'd be very proud of this team, the way they fight, but we really, really want to get St. John's back where it belongs, and we just keep winning and winning, and that'll take care of itself."

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