By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: AP News
St John’s Red Storm (9-5) lost to the Providence Friars (8-6), 77-71, on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
After the Red Storm went into halftime with a 38-31 lead, the team got outplayed by the Friars 46-33 in the second half. St John’s squandered a double-digit lead, which they had multiple 10-point leads in the second half. The Johnnies should’ve won this game. The Friars finished the game on a 14-3 run.
Zuby Ejiofor performed one of the best games of his season. He dropped 33 points and 15 rebounds. An effort like that, unfortunately, went to waste.
Aside from Ejiofor, this Red Storm offense was not impressive. St. John’s shot 28.2 percent from the field and missed 13 free throws. When you miss that many free throws, you’re not going to win the game. The Red Storm were outscored in the paint by 18. They were 6-for-22 on layups and had just five points in transition—a horrible offense, and not the way to start the new year.
“We had our worst offensive performance of the season,” Rick Pitino said. “We had to be almost perfect defensively, and down the stretch, we were anything but perfect.”
These are the kind of games that St John’s must avoid to lose. Whether they face an elite or a mediocre team, the Johnnies have to play great basketball from start to finish. It’s one of those losses that’s a tough pill to swallow.
The Red Storm are not looking as dominant as they were last season. We need to see more urgency and aggression from this group. Coach Pitino will be relentless in checking the videotapes to see what they can improve as a team.
St John’s will take on Butler on the road on Tuesday at 7 pm.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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