St. John’s marooned by Seton Hall, 81-65

St. John’s lack of size was exposed on an abysmal shooting night with the Red Storm losing to Seton Hall, 81-65.

The Red Storm falls to 14-13, 3-11 in Big East play; Seton Hall improves to 20-7, 12-3 in the Big East.

After the Johnnies lost in one form of heartbreaking fashion to Xavier on Monday by losing the lead in the final seconds, the Red Storm experienced a different kind of heartbreak by getting blown out by the school across the Hudson River.

The game opened up like an early season marquis matchup with both teams playing tentatively, feeling each other out, and settling for a lot of midrange jumpers. Both teams came out cold, but the Johnnies especially so, with the team experiencing a stretch of 1 of 11 from the floor.

Wendell Cruz

Soon thereafter, Seton Hall got into their comfort zone, going a 13 to 2 run midway through the half. The Pirates featured Sandro Mamukelashvili as a swing forward and Romaro Gill as a traditional big. Seton Hall would get the ball to Mamukelashvili in either the high or low post, and he either got to bucket himself or dumped it off to Gill when help came from the low post. The duo ended the half with 10 points for Mamukelashvili (3/4 FG) and 4 points for Gill (2/2 FG).

A decent approach to dealing with an opponents bigs or forwards is to attempt to get them into foul trouble. The Red Storm, by design or otherwise, did not attempt their first free throws until Josh Roberts knocked a pair down with five minutes left in the half.

Despite holding Player of the Year candidate Myles Powell to 5 points on 2 of 9 from the field and 0 of 5 from deep, the Johnnies went into the half down 36-22.

The Red Storm made some noise early in the second half and cut the lead to 7, but that was as close as the Johnnies got.

Wendell Cruz

Jared Rhoden and Gill were integral to Seton Hall expanding their lead in the second half. Rhoden finished the half with 8 points (2/2 FG, 2/2 3PT), and Gill added 8 points (4/4 FG) to his first half total.

In large part, St. John’s shortcomings today had to do with the inefficiencies of their offense as compared to Seton Hall. The Red Storm attempted 15 more shots than the Pirates on the day, however Seton Hall was 48% from the floor while St. John’s shot 34% from the field, St. John’s worst in Big East play.

The ball movement for St. John’s also just did not do nearly as much to set up offense for the Red Storm as it did for Seton Hall, as 38% of St. John’s field goals came off of assists. Seton Hall nearly doubled that with 70% of their field goals coming off of assists.

Seton Hall maintained their lead through the end of the half, and the Johnnies lost to Seton Hall, 81-65.

On Wednesday, the Red Storm look to stay above .500 in Philadelphia to take on the Wildcats of Villanova at 6:30.

St. John’s Red Storm

LJ Figueroa: 19 points (6/17 FG, 4/9 3PT), 4 rebounds, 1 turnovers

Julian Champagnie: 14 points (5/16 FG, 1/5 3PT), 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 turnovers

Josh Roberts: 8 points (2/5 FG), 10 rebounds, 4 turnovers

Seton Hall Pirates

Myles Powell: 18 points (6/18 FG, 2/11 3PT), 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 turnovers

Sandro Mamukelashvili: 16 points (5/9 FG, 1/3 3PT), 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 turnover