St. John's loses to Marquette as last shot misfires
Julian Champagnie #2 of St. John's dejectedly walks off the court after falling to Marquette 73-71 at Carnesecca Arena in Jamaica, Queens, on Saturday. Credit: James Escher
The adage says he who hesitates is lost. On Saturday against Marquette, St. John's hesitated.
The Red Storm trailed by two after Marquette's Koby McEwen drove the left side of the lane and put a one-hander high off the glass and in with 26 seconds left. St. John's coach Mike Anderson called a timeout with 23.9 seconds to play and drew up a play that called for a screen-and-roll on the right wing between Julian Champagnie and Greg Williams Jr.
Rasheem Dunn got the ball on the left side of the lane but couldn’t find a way to get the ball to them on the other side. With time draining away, he looked for something else and ended up giving it to Vince Cole, who drove and had his shot blocked out of bounds by Marquette's Theo John.
St. John’s took the ball out on the baseline with 1.5 seconds to play and got the ball to Champagnie in the right corner. His off-balance three-pointer hit the front of the rim and caromed off as Marquette pulled out a 73-71 Big East victory at Carnesecca Arena.
"In league play, it’s a matter of a play here and play there — that was very evident this afternoon," Anderson said. "Marquette made one more play than we did. That’s what I told our guys: They didn’t lose, they ran out of time."
Asked if his team had taken too long with the ball before Cole took his shot. Anderson replied, "I thought so. After it was first cut off, we didn’t get into the action we wanted to. Rasheem just held it and held it. Now you’re working against the clock. You get a shot off a little earlier and, when the game is extended and if you miss it, you may get a tip-in."
Champagnie finished with 20 points, but that last shot of the game was less than ideal. His momentum was carrying him out of bounds over the baseline.
"It came off fine. I was behind the basket, so it kind of faded to the left and it didn’t go in," he said. "That’s what happens when we let games go down to the very last second and we don’t get shots we want to take and have to force some shots."
It was a bad ending to a very good second half for St. John’s (7-7, 2-6), which had won its last four meetings with the Golden Eagles (8-6, 4-4) at Carnesecca Arena.
The Red Storm trailed by 11 at halftime, but they were the best version of themselves coming out of the intermission. They created turnovers and Champagnie scored 14 points in the first 6:46 of the second half, including all of them in a 12-0 run for a 53-51 lead with 13:14 to go.
Williams had 15 points and Posh Alexander, who played through discomfort in his hip and lower back after crashing into the basket stanchion and running into several tough screens, had nine points, eight assists and five steals for St. John’s.
Josh Roberts got into foul trouble in the first half but had all of his four blocks in the second half to help sustain the Red Storm comeback.
Ohio State transfer D.J. Carton had 14 points and Justing Lewis and Greg Elliott had 13 points apiece for Marquette.
After St. John’s grabbed the lead, it was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way. Marquette went up 65-60 on Elliott's floater in the lane and St. John’s responded with six unanswered points for a 66-65 edge on Williams' pull-up jumper with 4:25 left.
"They had a nice lead at halftime, but at [the finish], Marquette hung around and hung around," Anderson said. "They stole one."
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.
