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Big East Basketball: St. John’s puts massive dent in Seton Hall’s NCAA hopes

By Carmine Carcieri

Jan 29, 2017; Queens, NY, USA; St. John's Red Storm head coach Chris Mullin reacts during the first half against the Xavier Musketeers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 29, 2017; Queens, NY, USA; St. John's Red Storm head coach Chris Mullin reacts during the first half against the Xavier Musketeers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports /
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St. John’s handled Seton Hall in a Big East basketball rivalry battle at Madison Square Garden.

St. John’s is not in play to reach the NCAA Tournament, but the Red Storm sure can play spoiler for multiple Big East bubble teams down the stretch of the season.

Related Story: St. John's releases Zach Brown from Letter of Intent

And that’s exactly what Chris Mullin’s team did on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden against the Seton Hall Pirates. The Johnnies protected the paint and played with more energy and effort on their way to a 78-70 win over the Pirates.

The Johnnies were led by Shamorie Ponds (17 points), Marcus LoVett (19 points), and Bashir Ahmed (11 points) while Amar Alibegovic (seven points) and Tariq Owens (10 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks) gave the home team energy off the bench. Even Kassoum Yakwe (who has struggled for largely the entire season), had one of his best defensive games of the season, blocking shots and taking charges.

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“Today, we got contributions from a lot of different people,” Mullin said. “We ended up getting out-rebounded by 12 but I thought overall our post defense was pretty good and are activity on the boards was good.”

It wasn’t any individual play that carried the Johnnies to victory. Instead, it was the team’s aggressiveness for 40 minutes. St. John’s played stout defense, altered and blocked shots at the rim and made life difficult for Angel Delgado (13 points and 10 rebounds) in the paint. They were diving on the floor for loose balls and crashing the glass with the effort and intensity that Mullin talked about.

And on the offensive end, St. John’s wasn’t settling for threes. Instead, they shot only 11 jumpers from downtown and attacked the basket relentlessly. They shot 44 percent from the field, only turned the ball over eight times and drilled 91 percent of their free throws.

“We have options of how we want to score,” LoVett said postgame. “We can shoot the three or we can attack. Coach just really stressed that today was attacking. He felt like they couldn’t guard us (at the guard position).”

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Seton Hall was out of sorts from the get-go though. They turned the ball over religiously (18 total), Khadeen Carrington shot only 5-of-16 from the field and the team hit just 65 percent of their free throws.

With Ismael Sanogo out due to a sprained ankle and Jevon Thomas recently leaving the program, the Pirates lack of depth also showed up. Forward Michael Nzei had 11 points, but the Pirates got just 13 points off the bench compared to 32 points for St. John’s.

In the big picture, this is a bad loss for the Pirates. They are now in just 7th place in the Big East standings and are two games under .500 in conference play. With limited quality wins, this three-game home stretch against three top 25 teams (Creighton, Villanova, and Xavier) is pivotal if the Pirates want to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Seton Hall may not have to pull off the sweep, but they at least need to snag two wins and will likely need to finish at 9-9 or better in conference play in order to achieve their goal.

Meanwhile, St. John’s is tied for fifth in the Big East standings (fifth!). For a team that won just one Big East game last season and eight overall, this is a huge development for the program. This is only year two of the Chris Mullin era, but the Johnnies are already ahead of schedule with two elite freshman guards, an explosive offensive attack and plenty of speed up and down their lineup.

The Johnnies are now 12-14 overall and 6-7 in conference play, but will now have to head on a two-game road trip to Hinkle Fieldhouse and the Bradley Center. However, with two more winnable home games remaining (Georgetown and Providence), the Johnnies could finish .500, or close to it, in league play. That’s a win in it of itself, especially given the fact that they could avoid the Wednesday night game in the Big East Tournament and potentially shock some people in the postseason tournament.

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“All along I feel like if we play really tough defense, smart and tough and show some resistance and play unselfish on the offensive end, I think we can play with just about anybody,” Mullin said. “We have shown we can be dangerous to our opponents and dangerous to ourselves.”

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