Posh Alexander hurt but Julian Champagnie hits FTs down stretch to help St. John's secure win at Butler
St. John's Red Storm guard Julian Champagnie looks on during a free throw in the first half of an NCAA Big East men's basketball game against the Seton Hall Pirates at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 22. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
A late-season surge a year ago propelled St. John’s to a fourth-place finish in the Big East and its best seeding for the conference tournament since 2000. That surge consisted of winning eight of the last 11 conference games as the team finally jelled.
For the first time since December, St. John’s on Saturday won a second straight game, finding a way to prevail in a 75-72 Big East victory over Butler before 7,363 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. It was their first win at Hinkle since 2014.
One has to wonder if this progress forecasts another late-season surge for St. John’s (13-9, 5-6). One also has to wonder if that’s even possible if Posh Alexander has to miss time after leaving the game with a right ankle injury with 2:26 to play.
"The goal is always to find a way to win and our message to each other was . . . ‘by any means necessary,’ " Julian Champagnie said. "We’re making that our thing . . . We’re doing what we have to do."
Coach Mike Anderson said: "We’re trending in the right direction and we have more pieces to [our] puzzle stepping up. This team is becoming the team — I always talk about paint on a canvas — I hope when all is said and done, it’ll be a pretty good picture with this basketball team."
Earning a victory without Alexander down the stretch was impressive. Alexander injured his right ankle with about five minutes left, apparently coming down on an opposing player. Clearly in pain, he tried to return before coming out for good.
Anderson stopped short of saying it was a serious injury to the team’s floor leader and second-leading scorer, but he conceded that at the end of the game, "he couldn’t go."
The Red Storm is the worst free throw-shooting team in the Big East — they came in making 64.9% — but went ahead and won at the stripe. They didn’t make a field goal in the final 4:15 but shot 9-for-10 from the free-throw line down the stretch. Champagnie was 6-for-6 in that span.
St. John’s finished a season-best 21-for-25 on free throws. Though Anderson said there was no cause-and-effect, the only thing the Red Storm did at practice the day before was shoot free throws at Hinkle.
Champagnie had 21 points, including 9-for-10 on free throws, and eight rebounds. Aaron Wheeler had 13 points, Alexander added 12 points, five assists and two steals and Joel Soriano scored 12 on 6-for-6 shooting. He is 12-for-12 from the floor in his last two games.
Bo Hodges scored 22 for Butler (11-12, 4-8).
Dylan Addae-Wusu made one of two free throws with 2:15 left to snap the last of 11 ties in the game and give St. John’s a 69-68 lead. After Champagnie rebounded Chuck Harris’ miss, Tareq Coburn made a pair of free throws for a three-point lead with 1:19 to play.
The Bulldogs twice cut the margin to a single point, but St. John’s got the ball to Champagnie, who had to be fouled. He made all of his four free throws in the last 19.6 seconds.
If St. John’s is going to make a run, it needs to do it now. Its next two games are against No. 12 Villanova and No. 17 Connecticut, both at the Garden.
"We’ve got to defend home court," Anderson said. "As the season progresses, the games get bigger."
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
