St. John's Stakes Their Claim With Takedown Of UConn

 

Kadary Richmond waiting to defend an inbounds pass. @StJohnsBball.

The St. John's Red Storm made quite the statement as they took down the two-time defending National Champion Connecticut Huskies, 68-62, on Friday night.

This was the 10th straight win, as well as the 16th in their last 17 games, for the Red Storm, who entered the week ranked No. 12 in the AP poll and 10th in USA Today.

St. John's now 21-3 on the season, including 12-1 in Big East play, the top mark in the conference. 

With the win over No. 11 Marquette on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, it is the first time they have beaten two teams in the Top 20 in the same week since 2006. UConn entered this one ranked 19th in the AP poll and 18th in USA Today.

There now are no more "yeah, buts" about St. John's, as they have shown this is for real, and with Rick Pitino at the helm, the sky is the limit.

St. John's had a balanced scoring attack, led by RJ Luis Jr., who had 21 points on 10-21 shooting, with seven rebounds and an assist. It was the seventh time this season that Luis has put up at least 20 points.

Kadary Richmond had 12 points (4-12 FG), six rebounds, six assists, and two steals. Zuby Ejiofor and Simeon Wilcher had 11 points apiece, with Zuby shooting 3-5 and draining five free throws, while also snatching five rebounds and two assists.

While the offense did the job, St. John's defense, which is gaining a massive reputation, notched an astonishing 22 turnovers in this one. They also got 18 points off those TOs.

St. John's held UConn to 36 points over the final 33 minutes and 38 seconds of the game.

That was after UConn raced out to a 26-12 lead at the 11:38 mark of he first half, as they were making an early statement.

That would be met in kind by St. John's going on a 15-2 run capped by a three-point play from Luis at the 5:55 mark. The Red Storm would lead at the half, 37-35.

UConn would retake the lead in the second half, and led by as many as six, at 48-42, on a Liam McNeeley three-pointer at 11:16.

It was 52-48 Connecticut with 7:12 left before St. John's went on a run they've been waiting decades to make.

Richmond snagged the rebound after Alex Karaban missed the second of two free throw attempts, and then he made a layup to pull them within two.

Then, St. John's forced two turnovers, the second of which led to Luis making a layup of his own to tie it at 52 at 5:50.

UConn then committed its third turnover in as many possessions, which led to Richmond burying a jumper to give St. John's its first real lead of the second half.

Richmond then buried a jumper before St. John's forced another turnover, which led a race to the other end. Simeon Wilcher looked set to lay it in, but knew he wasn't at a good angle, and dished it to a trailing Aaron Scott, who tipped it in to make it 58-52.

After a McNeeley missed three-pointer, Richmond buried a pair of free throws to make it 60-52 at the 3:11 mark, capping an astonishing 12-0 run.

UConn would not go away, as would be expected, and would pull within two points, 64-62, with 39 seconds left.

There was a nine-second difference shot to game clock when St. John's got the ball, and it went down to three seconds when Wilcher tried a corner jumper that was blocked by Solo Ball.

That still gave St. John's enough time, and Luis buried a jumper from nearly the same spot to make it a four-point game with 11 seconds left, 66-62.

McNeeley missed a layup with three seconds left, and Ejiofor snatched the rebound before he was fouled. He had the honor of draining a pair of free throws to clinch the victory, another signature one for St. John's.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: “Obviously, a very intelligent but gritty team that doesn’t rattle when we are down. We did something tonight we rarely do, we went full-court pressure nearly the entire game, we felt it could contain the outside shooting, we felt it could take time off the clock. They run so many great sets, we just wanted to really get after it in the full-court situation. Our last play was a counter. I have to give a lot of credit to my assistant coach, Bob Walsh, I let him call the out-of-bounds plays. He drew up a beautiful five-down counter. He had the right guy shooting the ball. [RJ Luis Jr.] has never met a shot he didn’t like and there was no doubt in my mind he was going to make the shot. I was one hundred percent sure he was going to make the shot. Then Kadary [Richmond] made some big plays and some big free throws. This is a big-time win for us. Awesome crowd, it's very difficult to go against that type of crowd, but this is a veteran team. Kadary [Richmond] is as good as it gets and there is no better scorer in the BIG EAST than RJ. I’m really proud of the guys.”

On the full-court press tonight: “I felt the full-court press really bailed us out tonight. It gave us great momentum. It picked up the half-court defense. We're in fabulous shape because we didn't play our bench much tonight. We're in great physical shape and I think they made a lot of great plays down the stretch.”

On winning on the road at UConn: “I think it's a very tough place to play; on campus, hostile arena that they don't lose too many games in. They're a very well-coached, well-drilled team that shoots it great. So, it's a great win. It's a little tougher to win on the road than is at home, but we've been road warriors the entire season. Having a hell of a year, we just got to keep it up.”

On the effectiveness of the press: “What the press has done for me for 40 years has worn people out legs-wise, when they don't shoot the ball as well. It's always been the gift that my teams have had. If we can wear out their legs, they won't shoot it as well. But they were coming at us and they were getting too many easy shots, so I felt the full-court press would take a little starch out of their shots, take a little time in the backcourt, make us ultra-aggressive. We pressed more tonight than we normally have, but that's because of what they were doing to us offensively early on.”

On withstanding UConn’s early-game runs: “There's runs in basketball. They were on a great run early on, we made the adjustments, we went on a run. This is the two-time national champion in their building. They're going to come out like that. They're playing against the first-place team in the league. So, you know, the crowd's going to be fired up. They're going to be fired up. You know, they're going to execute. They have about 65 different plays. That's not easy to prepare for.” 

On the way the team is playing right now: “We're playing great basketball right now, but our defense is one of the best in the country. We're getting better offensively. So, I'm happy. I'm happy with everybody, their defensive focus and everything they did tonight was outstanding.”

 

On the wins over Marquette and UConn this week: “We've done a great job defensively of coming together each and every game. We know that's our common denominator and I'm proud of this. This was a hell of a win for us. Marquette was a hell of a win and we got to go to Villanova and play.” (on Wednesday night)