The final score won’t show it, but the St. John’s basketball team was pressed against Omaha in the first half.
Shots weren’t falling, Kadary Richmond and Aaron Scott were in foul trouble, and Rick Pitino was searching for answers after the Mavericks held a six-point lead with 8:47 remaining and Simeon Wilcher decided to step up.
Wilcher has started most games for the Johnnies this season but has been looked at as a secondary scoring option but when the Red Storm needed him against Omaha, he was ready.
The sophomore started a 16-2 run with a made 3-pointer and hit another to push the St. John’s lead to six, 28-22, in the spurt which came immediately after his assist on a 3-pointer from Ruben Prey.
“Sim, believe it or not, for the last five to six weeks has been our best practice player,” Rick Pitino said on Wednesday afternoon. “A few games he takes himself out with foul trouble, but he’s been our best defensive and offensive player.”
There was no taking Wilcher out of the zone on Thursday night. RJ Luis cited nerves as the reason why the Red Storm appeared to be tight in the first half, but not Wilcher. He was locked in from the start.
“It felt great,” he said after the 83-53 victory for the Red Storm.
“It’s something that I worked my whole life to be a part of and I couldn’t pick a better group to be in March Madness with.”
Wilcher scored 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range. It was the most triples he hit in a game since the Red Storm’s last loss in mid-February against Villanova.
“I just wanted to give us a little boost in any place that I could,” Wilcher explained.
While he helped in holding down the fort in the first half as St. John’s took a five-point lead into halftime, everyone else chipped in during its second half onslaught.
The Red Storm doubled up Omaha, 50-25, after halftime to cruise to its first NCAA Tournament win since 2000 and set up a date between Rick Pitino and John Calipari with a Sweet 16 berth on the line on Saturday afternoon (2:40 p.m. ET, CBS).