N
NEW YORK –— St. John’s may have entered Sunday’s contest with a terrible 1-13 mark in Big East play, but the tilt at Madison Square Garden might as well have been a playoff game for Seton Hall.
After squandering a massive first-half lead, the Pirates edged the Johnnies 62-61 on the strength of two clutch free throws from sophomore Isaiah Whitehead with five seconds left, sparing Seton Hall from a loss that could have hurt their NCAA Tournament chances.
“It’s a huge win just because if we lost, it would have damaged our resume,” Whitehead told reporters after the game. “I’m really proud of us being down with seconds left and actually coming back and winning the game.”
Thanks to Whitehead and a career-high 24 points from fellow sophomore and fellow New York native Desi Rodriguez, Seton Hall improved to 19-6, 9-5 in the Big East and would seemingly only need to win one of its remaining four regular-season games to clinch an NCAA bid.
#DunkinDesi is doing more than just dunking today for @SetonHallMBB! He has four triples as the Pirates lead early. https://t.co/9xLdqSEkIu
– BIG EAST MBB (@BIGEASTMBB) February 21, 2016
Two years ago, St. John’s went 10-8 in league play and went to the NIT instead of the NCAAs, but in most instances a winning record in the Big East ensures a tournament bid.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi currently has the Pirates as a 10 seed, but they could improve their seed by accumulating more wins down the stretch and in the Big East Tournament, which begins March 9 at the Garden.
Seton Hall has two golden opportunities for resume wins coming with home games against No. 23 Providence (Thursday) and No. 8 Xavier (Sunday).
The Pirates led by as many as 19 midway through the first half, thanks to Rodriguez’s 19-point stanza, but the Johnnies unleashed forwards Kassoum Yakwe and Yankuba Sima on Seton Hall in the second half. The Red Storm duo bullied the Pirates bigs on both sides of the ball, with Ismael Sanogo, Angel Delgado and Rashed Anthony all fouling out in the game’s final minutes.
Paced by Yakwe’s 16-point, 15-rebound, four-block effort, the Johnnies stormed back to take a 60-57 lead entering the contest’s final minute. But the Red Storm, coming off their first Big East win of the year on Wednesday against DePaul, couldn’t close the deal.
After the Red Storm’s Durand Johnson hit 1-of-2 free throws with 10 seconds left, Ron Mvouika was whistled for a foul on Whitehead in the ensuing scrum for the rebound. With the boos directed at the officials from the Johnnies faithful echoing throughout MSG, Whitehead, who finished with 10 points on just 1-12 shooting, calmly knocked down both free throws.
“All the work I put in the gym shooting free throws, I just tried to zone out,” Whitehead said. “And that’s exactly what I did.”
“That just shows how much he’s growing as a player,” Rodriguez said of Whitehead’s ability to put his poor shooting night behind him in that moment. “Last year, he would have gave up.”
Tempers continued to flare after the game, as the two teams began pushing and shoving in the handshake line. The squads were quickly separated, but multiple Seton Hall players were still screaming at the direction of the St. John’s bench as they were dragged off the floor by the Pirates coaching staff. The Big East will look into it by speaking to coaches and officials, a source said.
“There was nothing to it, sometimes that happens,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said. “I think that’s why in the NBA, everyone just walks to their locker rooms. Sometimes the handshake line probably isn’t the greatest idea.”
While Willard didn’t discuss the game’s ramifications on his team’s NCAA Tournament hopes, he said he knew St. John’s would be one of their most difficult opponents over the last quarter of the season, despite the Queens school’s dismal 8-20 record.
“This was the game that I looked at over the last week-and-a-half. I thought it was going to be our toughest game,” he said. “I just thought they’ve been playing extremely well defensively. Sometimes they’re offense hurts them a little bit, but defensively I thought they’ve made huge strides since the first time we played them.”
But both Whitehead, a Brooklyn native, and Rodriguez said they had some extra motivation on Sunday, returning to the five boroughs to play in their home city.
“It’s amazing. The atmosphere was amazing,” Whitehead said. “St. John’s fans really came out and made it a special game.”
“As soon as I step on the floor, I just feel good,” Rodriguez added. “I’m close to home. My family and friends are here supporting me.”
First-year Red Storm coach Chris Mullin said the “sting” of the loss will be good for the development of his young squad in the long run, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that it was a game St. John’s “probably deserved to win.”
“We went 10-24 from the free throw line,” Mullin said. “It’s not the last free throw, they all matter. It’s not which one you miss.”
FREE THROWS
St. John’s had several recruits at the game, including Class of 2016 signee Shamorie Ponds (Thomas Jefferson), 2017 guards Jose Alvarado (Christ the King) and Justin Minaya (Old Tappan) and 2018 guards Luther Muhammad and Jahvon Quinerly (Hudson Catholic).
Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter
