The St. John’s basketball team is not known to be a good 3-point shooting team, but Saturday afternoon was disastrous for the Red Storm even by its standards.
The Johnnies connected on just 1-of-21 attempts (4.8-percent) from downtown yet somehow managed to erase a 7-point second half deficit against Butler to win, 70-62.
It did most of its work on the backs of Kadary Richmond, Zuby Ejiofor, and RJ Luis with the trio scoring 33 of the team’s 45 points in the second half.
Ejiofor provided the initial charge for St. John’s, scoring 10 points in the opening 6:30 of the second half after going scoreless in the first half and sitting the final 8:33 following his second foul. His layup with 6:39 to go gave St. John’s a lead, 53-52, and it would never trail again.
“We didn’t have it tonight. We just gutted it out with that never quit attitude,” Rick Pitino said.
Richmond closed things out on both ends of the floor, with Luis as his counterpart.
After St. John’s (12-3, 3-1 Big East) had outscored Butler 16-5 with the Seton Hall transfer on the bench early in the second half, the Johnnies would not have clinched the victory without its standout guard on the floor after he registered five points, three rebounds, two steals, an assist, and block inside the final seven minutes with the Red Storm trailing by a point.
“I think he took over the game at that time, but I think he needs to do that from the opening tip until the end of the game,” Pitino said about Richmond’s second half.
“He was responsible for this win tonight, but he needs to do that the whole game.”
Each team struggled mightily in the first half trying to score the ball before Butler took a 29-25 lead into halftime. St. John’s had missed 21-of-23 shot attempts over 12:34 after making three of four shots to begin the game.
The Bulldogs (7-8, 0-4 Big East) have now lost seven straight games after starting the season 7-1.
The Red Storm will return to the road on Tuesday (6:30 p.m. ET, FS1) against Xavier (9-6, 1-3 Big East) looking for its elusive first Quad 1 victory of the season.