St. John’s Final: Red Storm outdone by Marquette 93-71

Much like the color of their uniforms, the mood around St. John’s was grey on Tuesday night. These somber feelings came at the hands of Marquette, who shot their way past the Red Storm by an 93-71 score.

Both teams started this contest hot, as the score was knotted at the under-16 timeout.

Before long the Golden Eagles had gotten out to a healthy lead, mainly due to their three-point shooting. Amid soft Red Storm defense, Marquette converted on 9 of their 13 first half attempts from deep. In addition, the Golden Eagles shot a stellar 64% from the field in the first half.

Throughout the contest, Andrew Rowsey provided a vital scoring punch for Marquette. He finished with 18 points and 6 assists.

Sam Hauser also played very well for the Golden Eagles. He would finish with 19 points, while hitting 5 of 8 three-point attempts.

In conjunction with Marquette’s hot first half shooting, St. John’s offense went quiet. These scoring lulls have become all too commonplace for the Johnnies. Just like in past junctures, St. John’s couldn’t recover from their early drought.

Although St. John’s had opportunities to hang around late in the first frame, they failed to convert and headed into the intermission down 52-37.

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Albeit a slow first half, St. John’s came out of the break reinvigorated. Unfortunately, the Johnnies failed to capitalize on their strong defensive stretch early on in the second half, again falling into a scoring drought.

Even with 12 minutes remaining in the contest, all hope seemed to be lost for a St. John’s team down 69-50.

As the contest winded down, all of St. John’s comeback gasps were squashed.

The Golden Eagles impressively shot 57% from the field, and 50% from outside the arc. On top of that, they collectively dished out 22 assists.

Much of the reason St. John’s couldn’t recover in this contest was because of poor frontcourt play. While Chris Mullin elected to play smaller, he has to expect more from Kassoum Yakwe and Tariq Owens. These two combined for 11 points and 8 rebounds.

On the other side, Marquette big man Matt Heldt tallied his first career double-double. He exited with 15 points and 10 rebounds, providing a nice spark for Marquette.

Marcus LoVett remained a bright spot for St. John’s. He walked out of the BMO Harris Bradley Center with 17 points, in addition to 5 assists.

Bashir Ahmed also had himself a big night, tallying 21 points while shooting 50% from the field.

Despite a poor defensive showing from St. John’s, they did slow Marquette star Markus Howard. He sat for a large chunk of this contest due to foul trouble. Howard would conclude with 3 points, 2 rebounds, and 4 assists.

St. John’s returns to action Saturday afternoon, when they will host Georgetown at Madison Square Garden. After that, only Creighton and Providence stand in the Red Storm’s way before the Big East Tournament.