Improved Storm falls to UConn
St. John's Moe Harkless reacts in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Connecticut. (Dec. 31, 2011) Credit: AP
HARTFORD -- A loss is a loss is a loss. Or so goes conventional wisdom. But when you have six new recruits in a seven-man rotation learning about Big East competition and playing a tough national schedule, as St. John's does, there are degrees of losing.
From both an aesthetic and a practical standpoint, the Red Storm's 83-69 loss to No. 9 Connecticut in a New Year's Eve matinee Saturday at XL Center was a significant improvement over the 22-point blowout they suffered Dec. 1 at then-No. 1 Kentucky.
After falling behind by 23 in the second half against the much bigger Huskies (12-1, 2-0 Big East), St. John's (7-6, 1-1) put together a 14-2 run to cut the deficit to 72-61 on a dunk by Sir'Dominic Pointer with 2:49 left. In a timeout during that stretch, assistant coach Mike Dunlap, subbing for coach Steve Lavin while he recuperates from prostate cancer surgery, told his players, "This is what we came here for."
In other words, the Red Storm was competitive late against the defending national champions. "Certainly, we learned a lot coming in here as a group and playing one of the best teams in the country," Dunlap said. "It felt like we've gotten better since the Kentucky game, but we have a couple more steps to take to compete and try to win this [kind of] game, which is the ultimate goal for us.
"The biggest thing was mentally. We played with togetherness. It's not a moral victory. It's factual. We kept coming at them."
Indeed, the Red Storm forced two Huskies turnovers in the final six seconds. After a terrible first half in which St. John's shot 25 percent from the field and had six shots blocked, the Red Storm hit 50 percent in the second half and got to the rim effectively.
It was a productive game for forwards Moe Harkless (16 points, six rebounds), God'sgift Achiuwa (16 points, five rebounds) and Pointer (14 points, eight rebounds, two steals), who totaled 15-for-29 shooting from the field.
It was the perimeter players who struggled. D'Angelo Harrison led St. John's with 17 points but shot 4-for-16. The Red Storm was 4-for-24 from three-point range.
"In the second half, we were able to get to the rim and exploit some of that from our conditioning," Dunlap said. "The seams were much bigger, so we could do that."
Of course, there are two sides to every story, and Connecticut assistant head coach George Blaney, subbing for Jim Calhoun while he served the second of a three-game NCAA suspension for recruiting infractions, had a different view. "We kind of let up because we were scoring so easily," Blaney said.
OK, there was the matter of a 60.4 percent shooting performance by the Huskies, who hit 71.4 percent in the second half. Shabazz Napier had 17 points and nine assists, 6-10 freshman Andre Drummond added 16 points and 11 rebounds, and preseason All-American Jeremy Lamb had 15 points, shooting 4-for-7 from three-point range.
"They're really, really big," Harkless said of the Huskies. "They've got like four 6-10 guys. It's crazy."
Actually, five Huskies who played ranged from 6-8 to 6-10, but you get the idea.
The learning process doesn't get any easier for St. John's young team. Next up is No. 4 Louisville on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.
