NEW YORK, NY — “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” is how one would best describe the St. John’s Red Storm’s 63-58 comeback victory over the Georgetown Hoyas on Tuesday night at the World’s Most Famous Arena.
For the first 20 minutes of their BIG EAST affair, as nearly 13,000 attended — 12,757 approximately — the Hoyas controlled nearly all aspects of the game, leading by 15 at one point in the first half, which was their largest lead.
St. John’s guard Kadary Richmond went scoreless in the first half on Tuesday night, but came up clutch in the second half, scoring 10 points – Image Credit: Tomasso DeRosa/Latino Sports
Shortly after, down 37-27 at the halfway mark, St. John’s returned to their locker room on abysmal shooting clips such as 10-29 from the field (34.5%), 4-11 (36.4%) from behind the arc, and 3-5 from the charity stripe. With those figures, paired to a fierce Georgetown defensive zone firing on all cylinders, some saw a blowout formulating or at least, a lop-sided Hoyas win.
Not making matters better, fans in Madison Square Garden were emotionally dejected, awaiting a Red Storm run to rally behind. And though, St. John’s had a massive comeback win earlier this season on the road vs. Providence — down 16 — Tuesday shaped up as an even larger challenge to overcome for Rick Pitino’s squad due to their star guard Deivon Smith inactive with a right-shoulder injury.
St. John’s guard Deivon Smith suffered a right-shoulder injury during the Red Storm’s win over Villanova last Saturday night and was deemed out for Tuesday night vs. Georgetown – Image Credit: Tomasso DeRosa/Latino Sports
So, at halftime as well as throughout timeouts, what was said by the iconic college basketball head coach Pitino, currently in his second year at St. John’s?
“My message to the guys during every timeout was, ‘Let’s just get it to single digits, regroup at halftime and we win it in the second half,’” Pitino stated. “When I talked to them at halftime, I said, ‘Look, these other guys are terrific coaches and they scout us as well. What they said to their team was, you have no chance of winning if you let this team kill you on the offensive glass.’”
Rick Pitino and the Red Storm have won 10 of their last 11 games, resulting in a “storm” forming across the Tri-State area- Image Credit: Tomasso DeRosa/Latino Sports
Overall, it seemed that the Red Storm caught onto Pitino’s message out of the gate — locking in on defense, allowing just 21 second-half points, and becoming more aggressive on the offensive end, especially when viewing the battle for rebounds.
Georgetown: 26 rebounds in the first half, 9 on the offensive end — 44 rebounds total, 13 on the offensive end
St. John’s: 10 rebounds in the first half, 3 on the offensive end — 38 rebounds total, 15 on the offensive end
Just as significant were the performances from Red Storm quintet — Kadary Richmond (10 points, 8 assists), RJ Luis Jr. (19 points, 3 rebounds), Zuby Ejiofor (10 points, 9 rebounds), Aaron Scott (14 points, 9 rebounds), and Simeon Wilcher (5 points, 2 blocks), who each played major roles in the immense comeback, a comeback that featured a 14-point second-half deficit.
Through their first 18 games (15-3), RJ Luis Jr. and the Red Storm are off to their best start since 1985-1986, a year in which the late great legend Lou Carnesecca led St. John’s to a 16-2 start – Image Credit: Tomasso DeRosa/Latino Sports
Such important roles, Georgetown’s head coach Ed Cooley had this to say in the postgame of Pitino, Luis Jr., and Richmond, an elite guard who transferred from Seton Hall this past offseason.
“He’s a great player,” referring to Luis Jr. “I mean, Coach [Pitino] has done a great job with his player development. He’s athletic, he’s long, he’s a triple threat. He’s an elite defender… he plays as a next-level player.”
“The unsung hero of that second half is Kadary (Richmond). Kadary made some big-time shots late, and that’s why they bought him here.”
Ed Cooley had high praise for Rick Pitino and St. John’s after Tuesday night’s “rock fight” at The Garden, stating “For St. John’s not to be ranked, I don’t know who some of these voters are, but you’re blind. Wake up.” – Image Credit: Tomasso DeRosa/Latino Sports
For Wilcher, an additional unsung hero, making winning plays that aren’t shown in the box score, the Red Storm sophomore guard shot at ease instead of overthinking it, and at the same time, morphed into a pest on defense.
“A year ago, Simeon Wilcher, if he’s not playing well, he would get distracted,” said Pitino on Wilcher’s development. “Tonight, he’s not scoring, but he’s not getting distracted in key plays. He missed those threes, I said, ‘Sim, you got to keep taking it, man, you got to keep taking it.’”
“Next one, he makes it, and then he gets the key back tip, and then we get the great block shot.”
In the postgame on Tuesday night, Simeon Wilcher said, “Being in New York City and playing well and winning, you get the whole city to back you and that’s what’s happening right now. We’re extremely excited for the rest of the season, just to see the things that we could do.” – Image Credit: Tomasso DeRosa/Latino Sports
In the grand scheme of it all, it wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win and the Johnnies will take it by all means necessary.
Their next chance to add to their win column is this coming Saturday night, January 18th, as St. John’s visits the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey to take on the Seton Hall Pirates — 8:00PM ET, tip-off on FOX Sports 1.
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