The St. John’s Red Storm faced Seton Hall on Tuesday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, coming off of a gut-wrenching 66-65 road loss to No. 22 ranked Creighton on Saturday. The Red Storm had two last-second attempts for the win versus the Bulldogs but couldn’t convert either.
With head coach Rick Pitino sidelined recovering from COVID-19, associate head coach Steve Masiello led St. John’s against the Pirates. Unlike Saturday’s defeat, the Red Storm weren’t in contention in the closing minutes as Seton Hall won comfortably 80-65. After starting 4-1 in Big East play, unranked St. John’s is now 4-3 and fifth in the conference. They are 12-6 overall and will take on No. 17 Marquette, which is 12-5 and sixth in the Big East at 3-3, at Madison Square Garden this Saturday (12 p.m.).
Seton Hall (13-5, 6-1), coached by Shaheen Holloway, now in his second season at the helm, leads the Big East standings and is on the cusp of breaking into the top 25 national rankings.
Senior guard Daniss Jenkins, who played for Pitino last year at Iona before both came to St. John’s, scored a team-high 17 points for the Red Storm versus the Pirates while Bronx native Dylan Addae-Wusu, a 6-4 guard who played the past three seasons for the Red Storm before transferring, paced the Seton Hall with 16. St. John’s shot just 25-61 (41%) from the field, including 7-21 on 3-pointers (33%). The Red Storm allowed Seton Hall to score 28 straight points from 4:33 of the first half (24-24) to 16:03 of the second half (52-27), when Glen Taylor hit a 3-pointer to finally break the drought.
Saturday’s game at Creighton was an opportunity for St. John’s to gain a signature win to put on their resume looking ahead to March when the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee selects the 36 best teams not otherwise automatic qualifiers for their conference to fill the at-large berths.
But they fell short after holding a 56-47 advantage with a little over nine minutes remaining in the game. Senior center Joel Soriano led the team with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Jenkins was the only other player in double figures, adding 11 points, but was only 5-17 from the field.
Pitino responded bluntly when asked if he felt good about his group playing Creighton down to the wire in a tough road environment.
“No, I don’t feel good when we lose, I f**king hate the world,” he said before apologizing for the expletive. “I’ve never felt goodwill in a loss. So I don’t feel good. I don’t believe in those valiant efforts on the road.”
