When St. John’s wanted large buckets on Saturday in opposition to Harvard, RJ Luis Jr. and Kadary Richmond discovered methods to carry the Pink Storm to a win.
The 77-64 victory was nearer than many would have predicted, and the Crimson managed to tug inside eight on three separate events within the second half.
The Johnnies had been coming off a troublesome journey to the Bahamas, the place they misplaced winnable video games in opposition to Baylor and Georgia.
It was Luis who made a giant layup with 7:19 remaining on Saturday to revive St John’s double-digit lead. He adopted it up with a second-chance 3-pointer lower than a minute later. The guard scored 24 factors on 9-for-18 capturing and had a game-high 10 rebounds.
Richmond’s driving layup within the paint with simply over three minutes left helped St. John’s reply after Harvard’s Evan Nelson made it an eight-point sport once more. Richmond completed with 18 factors and eight rebounds in additional than half-hour.
A dunk by Luis with simply over three minutes left as soon as once more restored the Pink Storm result in double digits. St. John’s closed out the ultimate 3:43 with a 10-7 run to carry on for the win.
“Not necessarily,” Luis responded when requested if there was a sure mindset when the sport received shut. “I feel like basketball is a game of runs, so they went on a run. We had to make sure we had enough stops to ultimately win the game. [Richmond and I] are two leaders on the court. He’s a great point guard, so he took advantage of what he saw. I played through what I got from the offense, so that’s it.”
Head coach Rick Pitino used 10 gamers within the sport, however by no means turned to Deivon Smith. The St. John’s guard has been within the doghouse since poorly reacting to his benching through the Georgia loss.
As a substitute of suspending Smith, Pitino requested his gamers to find out a punishment. The coach confirmed that they determined to bench Smith Saturday and he mentioned it will likely be their choice when Smith returns to the lineup.
“It’s very possible. It’s up to the team,” Pitino mentioned when requested if Smith might not play the following sport in opposition to Kansas State, which visits the Johnnies on Dec. 7.
St. John’s by no means trailed Harvard and shot 44.3 p.c from the sphere and 22.2 p.c from 3-point vary.
Jaiden Glover got here off the bench to attain 11 factors in roughly 19 minutes. Glover averaged 5 minutes in 5 prior appearances this season.
“I think it was great for Jaiden tonight,” Pitino mentioned. “That type of experience is invaluable, and can only help our basketball team. I’ve got a lot of confidence in Jaiden.”
The Johnnies rolled proper from the opening tip-off, leaping out to a 9-0 lead, beginning with a layup from Richmond. Luis had 4 factors within the stretch and Simeon Wilcher capped it with a nook 3 a bit of greater than three minutes into the sport.
The Crimson didn’t rating their first basket till 3:31 into the primary half, however stifled the Pink Storm’s run with six straight factors to tug inside three. Luis responded with a layup that gave St. John’s that kicked off a 13-2 run to place them forward by 16, their largest lead of the half.
Richmond prolonged the St. John’s result in 18 early within the second half, however the Crimson chipped away till it was right down to eight with 8:04 left, when Chandler Pigge hit a free throw.
“Teams like Harvard, Princeton, Columbia right now give us a little bit of a problem,” Pitino mentioned. “They’re five out and they cause problems for us defensively because we’re a help team. We load up on help and they can cause problems for you.”
He added: “We just didn’t get a whole lot out of our four and fives today. That’s pretty much because of the spread, but, we’ll take it. It’s a good win for us coming off a long trip.”
