It had the feel of an old school Big East game – physical, intense, and emotional as the St. John’s basketball team met Seton Hall for the first time this season.
And it presented the Red Storm with a challenge they had not accomplished yet this season – rallying from a big second half deficit.
After building a six-point lead at halftime, 38-32, the Pirates used a 9-0 spurt to begin the second half to build its largest lead of the game at 15 points, 47-32.
It felt like the Red Storm could not match the physicality Seton Hall brought to Madison Square Garden until a switched flipped at the under-16 media timeout.
The Johnnies started its comeback, going on a 9-1 run to cut the Seton Hall lead to seven, 48-41. It was slow and methodical, but it worked and eventually led to a 65-60 win.
“Without question, this is my favorite game of the season,” Rick Pitino explained.
Its defense continued to get stops, with the help of seven missed free throws by the Pirates in the second half, and its offense eventually found its way. St. John’s took its first lead since 23-22 on a Dillon Mitchell layup with 4:53 remaining never trailed again.
“We just went out there and played our hearts out, left it all on the court,” Mitchell said.
“It was nothing special that we did…The main thing was just leaving it all out on the court, playing hard. At that point, you’re down 15 [points], you got nothing else to lose, you got to go out there and try to get back in the game and that’s what we did”
Dylan Darling followed on the next possession with a spinning finger roll layup off an offensive rebound and virtually seal the game with a steal at halfcourt of Budd Clark and subsequent layup that extended the lead to five, 61-56, with 1:10 left.
Mitchell led the charge for the Red Storm (14-5, 7-1 Big East), proving to be nearly unguardable for Seton Hall with 17 points and 11 rebounds while Bryce Hopkins added 13 points, eight rebounds, and four assists.
“I think we discovered that there is no quit in us,” Hopkins said. “I think the discussion between me and the guys was who is going to be the tougher team? Are we just fall down and take their punch or are we going to get back up and throw a punch?”
The biggest turnaround was St. John’s effort on the glass in the second half. After being outrebounded by 14 over the first 27:50, the Red Storm got the rebounding battle back to even, outrebounding the Pirates 20-6 in the final 12:10.
Zuby Ejiofor battled foul trouble throughout the game and was limited to just 11 minutes in the second half, only posting nine points and four rebounds but added six assists to the winning cause.
“At the 15-minute mark, I feel like something clicked with the guys,” Hopkins continued. “We all came together and we just decided to play every possession like it was our last.”
St. John’s held Seton Hall (14-5, 4-4 Big East) to 7-of-25 (28-percent) shooting from the field in the second half after the Pirates connected on 15-of-33 (45.5-percent) in the first half.
With the exception of its victory on the road against Butler, who scored the opening basket of the second half and never led again, it was the first time St. John’s has won a game this season despite trailing in the second half. It’s previous largest comeback was an eight-point deficit early in the first half against Harvard.
The victory marked the 899th on-court win for Rick Pitino, tying him with Bob Knight for fourth most all-time in Division I men’s basketball history. Pitino could get to No. 900 and pass Knight on Saturday afternoon (2:30 p.m. ET, TNT) when the Red Storm battle Xavier in Cincinnati.