St. John's slump continues in loss to Seton Hall
St. John's Red Storm guard Dylan Addae-Wusu and guard Julian Champagnie walk off the court after their 66-60 lost to Seton Hall Pirates in an NCAA Big East men's basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
St. John’s was nothing short of ghastly in its latest unsightly performance. The Red Storm cannot be feeling good about what they see when they look in the mirror these days with the 66-60 Big East defeat to Seton Hall at the Garden making four losses in the past five games.
It was a winnable game against a sliding Seton Hall team that was without second-leading scorer Bryce Aiken, who is in concussion protocol. St. John’s played anything but winning basketball.
St. John’s top four scorers — Julian Champagnie, Posh Alexander, Dylan Addae-Wusu and Montez Mathis — were a combined 10-for-49 from the floor as the team shot 29.3% for the game. The Red Storm didn’t match the Pirates’ effort, getting outrebounded 60-43 and the Hall got most of the loose balls. The Storm continued to go at the basket while 7-2 Ike Obiagu piled up seven blocked shots and the Storm went 9-for-35 on layups; they made 64.7% on free throws; and there wasn’t enough urgency on offense while trailing in the final minutes.
It’s hard to envision that only three months ago, the Red Storm (10-7, 3-4) were picked by Big East coaches to finish fourth of 11, which would almost certainly mean a first NCAA trip in three years.
Storm coach Mike Anderson took accountability for a team loaded with veteran players not coming together faster when he said: "I thought we should be further along than where we’re at right now. I really do. It’s late January."
"You always want the pieces to come together quicker," he added, referring to influx of nine players. "It seems like we can get there, but we don’t get over the hump. Free throws, layups and rebounds have been our Achillies and some of that falls on me. I’ve just got to find the right combination."
He needs to find it quickly. St. John’s faces the Pirates (12-5, 3-4) again Monday night at their on-campus Walsh Gym.
Aaron Wheeler came off the bench for a team-high 13 points and Alexander had 10 points. Champagnie had nine points, his run of 47 straight games in double figures snapped as he went 3-for-14 while blanketed by the Pirates’ Myles Cale.
Cale had 21 points in what coach Kevin Willard called "his best game" in five seasons with the Pirates and Alex Yetna had 16 points and 15 rebounds for Seton Hall.
One of the enduring images from this debacle included St. John’s guards driving into the paint over and over again only to have their shots blocked or altered by Obiagu and 6-10 Tyrese Samuel — seemingly unthinkable after having 14 shots blocked by UConn 10 days earlier.
"That was a mystery because we always talk about going inside, planting and kicking it out," Anderson said. "Basketball is about decisions and you’ve got to make the right decisions. It’s something to work on because they’ve got people sitting there right in the lane."
Yet with all this, St. John’s actually had a chance to win, cutting the margin to four points three times in the final minute but failing to get closer.
Wheeler dunked with 58 seconds left to get the Storm within 60-56 and Addae-Wusu made a steal on the ensuing possession, but he and Montez both missed tough shots that were altered by the Pirates’ bigs. Addae-Wusu made two free throws with 48 seconds left to make it 62-58. Alexander made two free throws with 15.4 seconds left to make it 64-60, but St. John’s had to foul and Kadary Richmond made two free throws with 9.4 seconds left.
"It came down to makes and misses. We missed a lot of easy buckets but we gave ourselves a chance to win," Wheeler said. "We obviously have to figure it out because [this] obviously wasn’t good enough. We’re just figuring out how to win games at the end."
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.
