Crushing Loss at Carnesecca Arena
Written by: Jack Sargente
On Tuesday, February 1st the St. John’s Red Storm hosted to number 15th ranked Providence Friars at Carnesecca Arena. This was a big game for the Red Storm as they have lost 4 of their last five and are running out of time to turn this season around. The Johnnies had a big Quad 1 opportunity come into Queens and it would be a thriller that would go down to the last minute.
The game started like most St. John’s games where both teams were out and running in transition, which plays into the Johnnies favor. Julian Champagnie kicked off the game by hitting a mid-range jumper but was sidelined until under the 8-minute mark after getting cut above his eye. Sophomore guard Posh Alexander picked up the slack by doing it on both ends as he was hounding the Friars’ guards on the defensive end and finishing and making plays on offense. This game was a back-and-forth affair the whole time and the first half was no different than the rest of the game. Providence was killing the Red Storm from deep but St. John’s was able to stick around despite am overall rough offensive half due to 17 combined points from guards Alexander and Adde-Wusu. The Johnnies, trailing most of the half, were able to cut the lead down to 1 with 4:16 left in the half. But Providence would then go on a 12-5 run to end the half which culminated with a terrible foul by Posh Alexander on a three-pointer to end the half which would extend the lead at to 8 as Providence led St. John’s 40-32.
Providence opened the half with two free throws to increase the lead to 10 points before the Johnnies would come roaring back. The duo of Posh Alexander and Aaron Wheeler would lead the comeback as Wheeler would hit a jumper to tie the game at 47 with just over 15 minutes to go. On the Providence side, star center Nate Watson would start to come alive in the paint after being held to only 1 point in the first half. The Friars had a two headed attack of Watson dominating down low and forward Noah Horchler scorching it from deep as they would take back an 8-point lead. Providence would also get a huge lift off the bench as guard Jared Bynum would come off the bench and would give head coach Ed Cooley 19 points in 30 minutes as he was consistently hitting tough shots. Even with Providence clicking offensively, St. John’s refused to go away as they would make another run and a Posh Alexander free throw would knot up the score at 70-70 with just over 5 minutes left in the game. There was not much scoring for the next 4 minutes as Providence held a 78-74 lead with a minute left to go. St. John’s would end up making a couple of shots which would get them to 82 points on the game, but it would not be enough. Down the stretch Providence, and more specifically Al Durham, did not miss from the line as Durham shot the team's last 8 free throws and made all 8 of them which would help capture an 86-82 win. Posh Alexander showed up, scoring a career-high 29 points, but would not get much help as Aaron Wheeler was the only other starter to hit double figures as he contributed 16 points on a very efficient 7-11 shooting. For the fourth game in a row Julian Champagnie did not show up and yet again could not find any rhythm offensively and would fail to hit double figures as he was only able to score 8 points. For St. John’s to win they simply need more from him on offense and need him to be there at the end of games to be relied on to hit clutch shots.
The Johnnies are quickly running out of time and need to start winning some games as they currently are in third to last place in the Big East. St. John’s will take on Georgetown on Thursday at 6 P.M. in Washington, D.C. as they look to get things turned around and back into the win column.