St. John's humbled at No. 8 Villanova
Julian Champagnie (16 points) is not looking too happy while watching from the bench during second half against Villanova. Credit: AP/Matt Slocum
In its biggest game of the season thus far, St. John’s came up woefully small.
After the Red Storm got stunned by last-place DePaul on Saturday, Tuesday night’s Big East game against No. 8 Villanova became a must-win for a team flirting with the NCAA Tournament. They answered the moment with a dismal performance and suffered their largest defeat of the season, 81-58, at the Wildcats’ Finneran Pavilion.
Worse, starting point guard Posh Alexander had to leave after injuring his right thumb. Asked about his level of concern regarding Alexander, coach Mike Anderson said "obviously it’s a big concern (because) he’s a big part of what we do. So no question, there’s a concern."
St. John’s (14-10, 8-9) shot an anemic 37% from the field, made a season-worst 13% (3-for-23) on three-pointers and committed 16 turnovers. The Storm allowed ’Nova to shoot 48% from the field and make 11 threes. St. John’s did manage to get 15 turnovers off a Wildcats team that came in averaging nine, but converted them into only seven points.
The Red Storm first got into the NCAA Tournament conversation with its upset of the Wildcats in Queens three weeks earlier. It would seem Villanova (15-3, 10-2) has ushered them back out of the conversation. With no highly-ranked foes left on its schedule, the Big East’s conference tournament is their last chance to get back into it.
"The games are bigger now," Anderson said. "Every game gets bigger."
The way that the Wildcats and point guard Collin Gillespie attacked, it was like they’d been thinking about this game every day during the three weeks since they were stunned in Queens. Less than eight minutes into the game, Villanova was up 20-9 and Gillespie, who was forced into his worst game of the season by Alexander’s withering defense, had 10 points and two assists.
"(Villanova) was primed and ready to play," Anderson said. "They came out swinging."
It just got worse from there for St. John’s. Gillespie came out of the game with two fouls after just nine minutes and the ’Cats just kept pouring it on. An 8-0 Villanova run was capped by back-to-back dunks by Brandon Slater for a 28-12 lead with 9:43 left in the half and a 7-0 Wildcats run ended with Jeremiah Robinson-Earl making a reverse layup for a 41-21 lead with 1:10 until halftime.
At the intermission, ’Nova led 42-25, St. John’s had made only 29% of its shots including 2-for-13 on three-pointers and leading-scorer Julian Champagnie had only six points on 1-for-9 shooting. Champagnie was better in the second half and finished with 16 points and seven rebounds. Isaih Moore added 10 points for the Storm.
Caleb Daniels had 17 points, Gillespie had 14 points and five assists and Jermaine Samuels had 14 points and nine rebounds for Villanova.
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.
