There’s no sugar coating it, the second half the St. John’s basketball team put together against Kentucky was an unmitigated disaster on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta.
After leading by seven points at halftime, 32-25, the No. 22 Johnnies looked like they didn’t belong on the same court as the Wildcats, being outscored by 19 points and losing 78-66
St. John’s (7-4, 1-0 Big East) best offense after halftime was getting to the free throw line in which they made 16-of-17 attempts. From the floor they were 8-for-23 with eight turnovers. They got outrebounded by eight and surrendered ten offensive rebounds.
Everything that could go wrong, went wrong.
“We played a great defensive game in the first half,” Rick Pitino said after the loss. “Disappointed that we keep getting dominated in the front court, on the backboard especially.
“Last year we were one of the leading offensive rebounding teams in the country, and this year we're just not getting it done on the offensive glass.”
Kentucky (8-4) saw its two most important players, Jayden Quaintance and Jaland Lowe, completely take over the game.
Quaintance, in his season debut after tearing his ACL in February, was limited in the first half by only playing four minutes with two points and two rebounds but went for eight points and six rebounds – four offensive – in 14 second half minutes.
Lowe, who dislocated his shoulder in October, appeared to aggravate the injury after just seven seconds on the court. He went to the locker room for the remainder of the first half but played 14 minutes in the second half and orchestrated a 53-point masterpiece with 13 points and three assists.
St. John’s offense was a struggle, shooting 33.3-percent (17-of-51) from the field and 26.3-percent (5-for-19) from 3-point range.
“We have a decent basketball team,” Pitino added. “Nothing more than decent. We've got to take decent to good, and that means you've got to play two great halves defensively.”
Six points from Bryce Hopkins in the final 1:36 pushed him as the team’s leading scorer with 13 points. Zuby Ejiofor went for 12 points while Joson Sanon also added 12 points despite not making a field goal.
The Red Storm will return home for a matchup with Harvard (6-6) on Tuesday night (6:00 p.m. ET, FS1) before fully jumping into Big East play.