St. John's loses third straight as Seton Hall roars back in rout
St. John's guard Montez Mathis (10) drives to the basket against Seton Hall forward Tyrese Samuel (4) during the first half at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022. Credit: Noah K. Murray
NEWARK — St. John’s needs to get its act together and do it quickly before this college basketball season gets away from it.
The Year 2022 faded away Saturday and so did the Red Storm in their Big East game against Seton Hall. They built a 10-point lead in the first 10 minutes, and then they were gone. The Pirates grabbed the lead before halftime and pulled away for an 88-66 victory before 10,481 at Prudential Center.
St. John’s (11-4, 1-3) opened the season with eight straight non-conference wins but now has lost three straight in the Big East, and it has the potential to get ugly. The Red Storm’s next two games are against teams knocking on the door of the AP Top 25: Marquette at home on Tuesday and Providence on the road next weekend.
After losing three straight conference games, Seton Hall (8-7, 1-3) played with a sense of urgency. The Red Storm need to do that after again shrinking in the face of adversity.
In the Dec. 21 loss at Villanova, they didn’t make it back after a 17-2 first-half run by the Wildcats. When they hosted No. 22 Xavier on Wednesday, a 16-0 first-half run created too deep a hole to escape.
The Pirates had a 13-2 run — which included three-pointers by Femi Odukale and Al-Amir Dawes — to grab a 33-31 lead with 3:29 left in the half, and the Red Storm stayed competitive just two more minutes. Seton Hall scored the last five points of the half for a 42-37 lead and St. John’s made only one of its first 10 shots in the second half as the Pirates went up 54-39.
“We adapted when we were down 10,” Seton Hall’s Kadary Richmond said. “We came out swinging and they had nothing for us.”
“Last game I felt like we fought to the very end . . . Today I felt like we just quit,” said Joel Soriano, who had 23 points and 11 rebounds for his 12th double-double of the season. “We started off the game pretty well but I felt they had more fight than us.”
Red Storm coach Mike Anderson took the blame for his team looking unprepared. Asked about the state of the team at the midpoint of the season, he replied, “We’ve got some work to do, especially when adversity comes and physicality [grows]. We’ve got to get tough — that’s the bottom line.”
David Jones scored 12 points and Andre Curbelo had 10 points and seven assists for St. John’s. Dawes scored 22 points and Richmond had 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists for the Pirates. Elmont product KC Ndefo added eight points.
Asked about St. John’s handling of in-game adversity, Soriano said: “We’re not handling it well — we’re getting punched in the face and we just keep getting punched . . . We’re not responding.”
It’s one thing for a young team to struggle in the face of adversity, but this is a veteran team.
“That’s something we have to fix internally,” Soriano said. “We have to talk this out . . . We have to be more mentally tough.”
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.
