Last year, St. John’s had a finishing gear, a level it could hit with the game on the line.
Saturday afternoon, Alabama hit that extra gear.
The 15th-ranked Crimson Tide broke open a close game late with a 14-1 run and pulled out a 103-96 victory at the Garden to send No. 5 St. John’s to its first loss.
The Johnnies rallied from 11 down to briefly take the lead, but ran out of gas. Really, they had no answer for Alabama’s dynamic guards Labaron Philon and Aden Holloway, who combined for 46 points.
St. John’s was hammered in the paint, 54-40, and outscored by 15 from 3-point range.
They also allowed 14 offensive rebounds, leading to 19 second-chance points.
Zuby Ejiofor led St. John’s with 27 points and 10 rebounds, but 21 came in the first half. Bryce Hopkins added 19 points. Ian Jackson and Oziyah Sellers each scored 14 after slow starts, while Joson Sanon missed six of seven shots from the field.
St. John’s was without Dylan Darling, the lone traditional point guard on its roster, due to a calf strain.
Sellers jump-started an extended 19-7 run that gave St. John’s the lead, scoring six points and notching three assists in the spurt.
When Sanon made his first field goal of the night, a right-wing 3-pointer, the building exploded.
St. John’s had its first lead since the early going and 8:13 remained. From there, the offense stalled, and Alabama built a four-point edge with 4:11 to go.
St. John’s couldn’t stay with the Alabama guards in the first half, allowing Holloway, Philon and Latrell Wrightstell to combine for 34 points on 13-of-22 shooting. They had their way with the Johnnies, getting penetration that created open 3-point looks.
The Crimson Tide closed the first half on a 16-6 run, capped by a Holloway 3-pointer at the horn that gave Alabama a nine-point halftime edge. Their 53 first-half points were the most allowed by a Pitino-coached St. John’s team since his arrival three years ago.
Ejiofor and Hopkins scored 36 of the Red Storm’s 44 points. Sellers, Jackson and Sanon, meanwhile, shot 1-of-10 from the field with three turnovers. Really, St. John’s was fortunate to only trail by nine. They were outscored by eight points in the paint and 21 from beyond the 3-point line.
The Johnnies and Jackson started the second half well, quickly getting within two. But Alabama responded with nine straight points, pushing the lead to a then-game-high 11. St. John’s hung around, but it never felt like the game was within reach. Alabama always had an answer.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
