A week ago, the St. John’s basketball team had its hands full with Rutgers, a team picked at the bottom of the Big Ten.
Rick Pitino said if the Johnnies replicated its performance they’d lose by 40 points. He reiterated on Friday that he didn’t think his team was ready for the challenge of No. 7 Texas in its exhibition finale.
As a result, the No. 13 Red Storm flipped the script on its head coach and dominated the Longhorns for 40 minutes, winning 87-74 inside Madison Square Garden.
“I try and use [the media] as much as I can,” Rick Pitino joked after the game on if his team surprised him after saying they would not be able to match Texas’ skill and size.
“And [the media] obliges me all the time and buy into everything I say,”
St. John’s trailed after the Longhorns won the tipoff and opened the scoring on the first possession with a layup from Matas Vokietaitis. It was the only time the Johnnies were behind.
St. John’s answered on the ensuing possession with a layup from Ruben Prey to tie the game and then landed another easy basket on a steal and layup by Tounde Yessoufou to take a lead it would never relinquish.
Yessoufou, Ian Jackson, and Keyshawn Hall were terrific – combining for 65 points and shooting 23-for-41 (56-percent) from the floor.
After leading by 16 points, 35-19, midway through the first half, Texas got within six behind a 12-2 run, but St. John’s rattled off a 12-0 run going into halftime in which every point was scored by its dynamic trio.
“I felt that we had to make a quantum leap from the Rutgers game,” Pitino added. “I was on them constantly about certain things and they made a quantum leap today.”
The lead continued to grow in the second half, reaching as many as 22 points coming out of the locker room, but as Texas tried to get itself back in the game the Longhorns never proved as a serious threat.
"We wanted to come out and set a standard and be dominant in our home court,” Keyshawn Hall, who finished with a team-high 24 points said after the win.
“We had to come out and not let them guys get ahead of us or be more physical than us and play harder than us. We match up skill-wise with probably anybody in the country. It's the physical toughness and little intangibles that are going to matter."
St. John’s finishes its preseason undefeated but the next time it takes the court the games will count, beginning on Monday, November 2 (6:30p.m. ET, ESPN+) against Monmouth.
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