St. John’s basketball falls to Brown to close out 2021

St. John’s basketball falls to Brown 75-72 in shorthanded effort. 

On Thursday night, the St. John’s basketball team returned to action after a 10-day layoff to take on Brown (5-7) at Carnesecca Arena to close out 2021.

The game was put together this past Tuesday as a result of a game against Georgetown set for December 31 being postponed due to COVID issues in the Hoyas program and a previous game against Iona on December 8 being canceled.

It marked the second all-time meeting between St. John’s and Brown with the first coming back in 2006, a 73-49 victory for the Red Storm.

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St. John’s had to go on without top contributors Leilani Correa and Danielle Patterson in the game.

The Red Storm would find itself down by as many as 14 points but mounted a valiant comeback that in the end fell short as the Bears ran out 75-72 winners over the Johnnies (5-8, 1-0 Big East).

Kadaja Bailey led the game with a career-high 28 points along with Danielle Cosgrove chipping in a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

St. John’s basketball looking for positives in defeat

A bright spot despite the loss is Cosgrove getting into a good rhythm offensively, becoming a much more important piece for the Red Storm as the Notre Dame transfer has hit double figures in her last three straight games, bringing her up to 11.1 points per game this season.

The Bears would get the victory thanks to 22 points off the bench from sophomore guard Kyla Jones as well as 18 points from leading scorer Isabella Mauricio.

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St. John’s has now lost three straight games as they will now head back into conference play and look to bounce back against Villanova on Sunday, January 2 at the Finneran Pavilion.

The Johnnies have lost the last four straight meetings to Villanova, albeit in dramatic fashion as three of the four previous contests have gone to overtime to settle the match.

The last win for the Johnnies over Villanova did come on the road in a 66-62 victory on February 22, 2019.

St. John’s will look to repeat the feat and break the drought over the Wildcats.