The trap door wasn’t hard to see. In fact, it was as big as traps get.
Two days removed from a very disappointing loss against Kentucky and two hours away from a three-day Christmas break, St. John’s was up against it against Harvard.
The Johnnies were looking right through the Crimson to its vacation and Harvard jumped the sleepy Red Storm to a 14-for-21 shooting start, leading 31-26.
Then, St. John’s woke up and got to work.
Rick Pitino’s squad exploded on a 20-2 run to end the half, leading 46-33, and carried that momentum into the second half cruising to an 85-59 victory.
“I thought our guys did an exceptional job of not panicking when they were making some really high percentage shots,” Pitino said following the game.
“We don’t pay attention to any nonsense about where we are. We just try to get better each day. We know, come March, we think we’ll be a good basketball team, but we still have a long way to go.”
The Red Storm (8-4, 1-0 Big East) were led by improved efforts from Ian Jackson and Bryce Hopkins, combining for 14 points each. It was Hopkins most points since his 22-point outburst in Las Vegas against Baylor.
Zuby Ejiofor also chipped in 14 points, nine rebounds, and four assists in the victory.
After its scorching start from the field, Harvard (6-7) only made nine shots for the remainder of the game.
“We’ve got to come out at a new level,” Pitino said about his team’s defense.
He mentioned that he overheard Auburn coaches saying that the Red Storm were “punking” them in the first half before the Tigers’ second half turnaround. He mentioned it again to his team at halftime against Kentucky after they held the Wildcats to 25 points in the first half but the message didn't resonate.
“I think that’s another lesson they’ve learned coming out of the locker room because all the guys were saying pay no attention to the lead. Come out in the second half and play great defense.”
The Red Storm built its lead to as many as 28 points in the second half.
St. John’s finishes its non-conference schedule a disappointing 7-4 and will travel to face Georgetown (9-4, 1-1 Big East) on Tuesday, December 31 (8:00 p.m. ET, FS1) for its first true road game of the season.