The St. John’s basketball team won its third consecutive game after rallying from a small second half deficit to defeat Villanova on Saturday night inside Madison Square Garden, 80-68, and have now emerged victorious in nine of ten games after returning from the Bahamas.
RJ Luis dominated with 30 points and 10 rebounds, the most points he has scored in a St. John’s uniform and coming within a single point of his career-high while he was with UMass.
The rest of St. John’s saw a balanced attack with three other players scoring in double figures, but it was a limited group of players for the Johnnies when Deivon Smith injured his shoulder with 2:02 remaining in the first half.
Smith returned to the game midway through the second half for nearly three minutes but did not have enough mobility to be effective.
Still, St. John’s showed its mental toughness to grind out a victory and continue its path to a bid in the NCAA Tournament as we look back on the four biggest takeaways from the night in Manhattan.
St. John's is building a true home court advantage at MSG
In prior years St. John’s never truly had a home court advantage at Madison Square Garden.
The program was playing less and less games at The Mecca before the arrival of Rick Pitino and when it did lace things up in The Garden, an overwhelming number of opposing fans would flood the seats, specifically from Villanova and UConn.
Not Saturday night, however. This was all Johnnie fans in the 18,178 of the announced crowd, the second largest crowd for a home game under Pitino, and it was much appreciated and noticed by the St. John’s players and coaches.
“It was rocking. It was jumping,” RJ Luis said of the atmosphere. “I just want to continue that the fans keep coming out and supporting us. We’re going to need all the energy we can get.”
St. John’s, after they shook hands with Villanova, saluted the fans that remained inside Madison Square Garden -- very similar to what hockey teams do following wins at home – by gathering at halfcourt and waving and clapping to the crowd.
It felt like the first of many conference games that will have large attendance numbers for the Red Storm.
Kadary Richmond is coming into his own
Kadary Richmond, slowly but surely, is coming into his own for St. John’s.
Despite being tabbed as one of the best transfers of the offseason, his impact on the Red Storm has come in spurts and now it’s being seen much more often. It started with the final six minutes in the Johnnies’ win over Butler before carrying into the start of its win over Xavier.
Then, he came alive exactly when St. John’s needed him most on Saturday night.
Richmond scored five consecutive points after checking back into the game with 8:29 to play in the second half, bringing the Red Storm within one with a conventional 3-point play while a midrange jumper on the next possession but the Johnnies in front and they would never trail again.
His free throws with under a minute to play iced the game.
The stat line – nine points, four rebounds, five assists, and two steals – won’t look overly impressive but when St. John’s needed Kadary Richmond to be great, he was there for them.
It’ll be a big week for Richmond as he returns to face Seton Hall for the first time since transferring to St. John’s but the Red Storm will need him to maintain his level of play because the schedule is going to get much more difficult quickly.