No. 9 St. John’s and No. 24 Creighton will compete for the Big East lead on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Both teams have been reminded this week how quickly things can change between joy and disappointment, as they both look to bounce back from rare losses.
The Red Storm’s 10-game winning streak ended with a 73-71 loss at Villanova on Wednesday. The Bluejays had won nine straight before falling 70-66 to UConn at home on Tuesday.
Creighton’s loss (18-7, 11-3 Big East) ensured that St. John’s (21-4, 12-2) would stay on top of the conference heading into the weekend. But the Bluejays’ visit to New York will highlight how small the margin of error is for the Red Storm, whose four losses have all been by a total of just seven points.
One of those losses was a close 57-56 game at Creighton on Dec. 31, meaning a win on Sunday by the Bluejays would give them the tiebreaker for Big East tournament seeding.
St. John’s had a rare poor defensive showing on Wednesday, which reminded them of the challenges of sticking to their traditional style of play. According to KenPom.com, the Red Storm entered Friday with the second-ranked defense in the nation but just the 80th-ranked offense.
The Red Storm shot 44.3 percent and 29.7 percent from three-point range on Wednesday, exceeding their Big East averages. But Villanova shot 53.1 percent from the field and 45.8 percent from behind the arc.
“We weren’t there defensively, and that’s our identity,” St. John’s guard Aaron Scott said. “I don’t know (why). They have some good players on their team, but we just weren’t there defensively.”
St. John’s will need to fix their issues on both ends of the court without guard Deivon Smith, who is out indefinitely with a neck injury.
No. 12 St. John (NCAAB)“He’s just not the same player he was a month ago and we’ve got to get him healthy,” coach Rick Pitino said about Smith, who also missed three games last month with a bruised right shoulder.
RJ Luis Jr. is St. John’s leading scorer with 17.4 points per game, followed by Zuby Ejiofor with 13.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. Kadary Richmond is the team’s top assist man, averaging 5.2 assists and 12.3 points per game.
The loss to UConn was extra frustrating for Creighton, which had moved from the NCAA Tournament bubble into the Top 25 during their winning streak, with five of those wins coming by double digits.
Creighton led 37-23 with three minutes left in the first half, but UConn scored the next 13 points to start a 37-15 run, taking a 60-52 lead with 6:46 left.
The Bluejays tied the score at 65-all on a free throw by Fedor Zugic with two minutes left but missed two opportunities to take the lead over the next 91 seconds. UConn hit three of its last five free throws to seal their first win in Omaha, Neb.
“When you’re playing a team as good as UConn, you’ve got to be a little bit more perfect than we were tonight,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “Had a real chance at the end of that first half to create some separation.”
Ryan Kalkbrenner leads Creighton with 19.0 points per game and 8.5 rebounds per game, while Steven Ashworth, who averages 16.7 points per game, leads the team in assists with 6.8 per game.
