Saturday afternoon was supposed to be a 40-minute party celebrating the success of the St. John’s basketball team. All that stood in front of the No. 7 Johnnies from its first outright Big East regular season title since 1985 was lowly 7-win Seton Hall.
But the Pirates never got the memo that they were supposed to lie down for the Red Storm.
Instead, it was an anxiety filled day with sold out The Garden nervous, quiet, and tense.
“We knew what we were playing for tonight, but look at [Seton Hall’s] record to play that hard, that well against the best team in the conference speaks volumes for their ability,” Rick Pitino said.
The crowd finally came alive after a Ruben Prey 3-pointer, his second of the season, with 9:11 left that sparked an 8-2 run that built its largest lead of the game at the moment, 59-52.
It allowed the building to finally breathe and get behind the Red Storm, lifting St. John’s to a 71-61 victory and its long-awaited crowning moment as confetti fell from the sky as Zuby Ejiofor lifted the trophy.
“Once the confetti dropped, no matter how bad we played the game today or what we could’ve done different from our mistakes, it just felt great to get it done,” RJ Luis explained.
“I think the last two games they were under a lot of pressure,” Pitino added. “The pressure to win is really, really great.”
Seton Hall (7-22, 2-16 Big East) was able to shoot 52.1-percent against the Red Storm’s elite defense but lost the game at the free throw line making just 9-of-21 and 5-of-12 in the second half.
Despite multiple opportunities to do so, the Pirates were never able to take the lead in the second half because of its charity stripe struggles.
St. John’s (26-4, 17-2 Big East) started the game 0-for-8 from the floor and never truly found its rhythm in the first half against the defensive minded Pirates despite leading 34-30 at halftime.
Its stars outside of Zuby Ejiofor and Luis were never able to get into a groove as Aaron Scott was limited to just three minutes because of a hamstring injury while Kadary Richmond and Deivon Smith combined to shoot 6-of-21 from the field.
The Red Storm will have a week off before taking the court again on Saturday afternoon (12:00 p.m. ET, FOX) in Milwaukee against Marquette (21-7, 12-5 Big East).