It had the all makings of a successful trip to Las Vegas after the St. John’s basketball team defeated Baylor on Tuesday night and opened an 11-point advantage in the second half over No. 21 Auburn on Wednesday.
Then, the wheels started to loosen and eventually fell off in an 85-74 crushing loss.
A Joson Sanon 3-pointer with 10:36 remaining put the Red Storm (4-3) up by six, 59-53. He was fouled on the play but missed the momentum building free throw.
Then, the Tigers were shot out of a rocket offensively, led by sophomore guard Tahaad Pettiford, making eight straight field goals and finishing the game by making nine of its final eleven attempts.
A 3-pointer from Pettiford capped an 18-5 run, putting Auburn up 73-66, which he scored the final 11 points, finishing with 27 points.
“It’s disappointing,” Rick Pitino said after the loss. “Going home 1-2, we would’ve liked 2-1, so it was a very disappointing trip.”
Auburn (6-2) outscored St. John’s 32-15 over the final 10:30 and put up 55 points as a team in the second half. The Tigers shot 64-percent from the field and 62.5-percent from 3-point range after halftime, as well as making 18-of-21 free throws.
“This is not a great team with adhering to scouting with little time,” he said.
St. John’s started sluggish, creating a seven-point hole, in the opening 12 minutes before getting a major lift from Zuby Ejiofor and Sadiku Ibine-Ayo.
Ejiofor had 17 points at halftime while the Red Storm outscored Auburn by 13 points in Ibine Ayo’s eight minutes, turning its deficit into a nine-point halftime lead.
The Red Storm got very little from Dillon Mitchell, Bryce Hopkins, and Oziyah Sellers – all who had been standouts for the Johnnies in its first two games in Vegas. The trio combined for 17 points on 5-of-25 shooting, including half of the team’s 14 turnovers.
“Our upperclassmen just had a horrendous night shooting the basketball and scoring the basketball ball,” Pitino explained. “You’re not going to win very many games shooting that type of percentage.”
Joson Sanon broke out of his shooting slump with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting, only trailing the 24 points from Ejiofor.
Dylan Darling battled a hamstring injury during the game. He did not play from the 15:44 mark of the first half until the 8:17 point of the second half and didn’t score or attempt a shot in the loss.
Pitino said that he only returned in the second half because the team was battling foul trouble in the backcourt.
St. John’s will have nine days off before playing Ole Miss (5-1) inside Madison Square Garden on Saturday, December 6 (8:00 p.m. ET, Peacock).