PHILADELPHIA — St. John’s put its Big East house back in order on Saturday night.
The Red Storm were nothing short of phenomenal coming out of halftime — scoring on 12 of their first 13 possessions and extending a one-point lead at the break into a 16-point margin before the midpoint of the second half — and then held off Villanova and a hostile crowd for an 86-79 Big East victory before 14,899 at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
The Big East was always supposed to be a battle between St. John’s and Connecticut since they opened the season ranked No. 5 and No. 6, respectively. The Red Storm have lost their ranking, but they wrested sole possession of second place from Villanova with the win and stayed within striking distance of the third-ranked Huskies.
“I really don’t look at that as much as I look at the way we’re playing,” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said. “I really think it’s [positive] when you win these road games like this — to play that tenacious, to battle a crowd, to not give in [when you] miss free throws.
“So second place is OK, but more important is we keep going like this,” he added with his hand making an upward arc, “and playing better basketball.”
Asked about being in second after some disappointing stretches during non-conference play, Bryce Hopkins replied, “It feels good, but the job’s not finished. Our eye is on a bigger goal and we have to keep on preparing at a high level.”
St. John’s (13-5, 6-1) has won four straight and six of its last seven games, including three Quad 1 wins in the past two weeks. Entering play Saturday, only 14 teams had four Quad 1 wins, and St. John’s now has four.
Hopkins had 20 points, 13 in the second half, and Ian Jackson added 18, 11 after halftime. Zuby Ejiofor scored 17 and Dillon Mitchell had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Tyler Perkins scored 23 points and Devin Askew 21 for Villanova (14-4, 5-2).
The Red Storm’s 27-12 run to open the second half produced a 63-47 lead with 11:15 left. Jackson and Oziyah Sellers had nine points each and Hopkins added seven in that span, which included a stretch in which the Red Storm scored 13 unanswered points.
Villanova made several runs in the final seven minutes, cutting the margin to five three times, but never got it to a one-possession game.
Asked to describe what it was like to be in that run, Hopkins replied, “It feels really good. I feel like it’s a testament to our defense and our preparation and practice. I feel like once we really got into our press and we were applying pressure and [speeding] them up . . . [it] led to some of their turnovers and it allowed us to get out in transition. When we play in transition with all the guys we have . . . . it’s hard to keep up.”
St. John’s emerged from a hotly contested first half with a 36-35 lead. The Red Storm had a chance to open a bigger lead — they went ahead 35-27 on a pair of free throws by Mitchell with 3:33 left before halftime — but Askew made a pair of timely three-pointers to help Villanova keep up.
St. John’s wasn’t in a good place just two weeks ago when it lost to Providence at the Garden, a costly Quad 3 defeat. At the time, Pitino suggested that the Red Storm had their backs to the wall at a very early juncture, but they have responded well.
“When I told the guys our backs are to the wall, and they all remember this, I said, ‘But there’s not a team I’ve ever coached with the backs to the wall that I’d rather have coached. There’s not a shadow of a doubt that you guys will win. Four minutes of bad basketball? That’s not going to make who you are.’ And they’re all rising to the occasion.”
Hopkins in particular has taken his game up a level since he had nine points and shot 3-for-13 in the loss to Providence. In the four games since, he is averaging 15.8 points and shooting 23-for-44. He has been particularly strong in the second half to help close out wins over Butler, Marquette and Villanova.
“I think he’s developing a much better personality, and what I mean by that is he’s really getting into the team and the emotion of the team,” Pitino said. “We’re a very emotional team. We leave the locker room very emotional, and he’s getting into it.
“He went after some rebounds tonight that were pure toughness . . . So he’s really coming out of his shell. I think it just takes a little time getting to know each other, but he’s improving.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
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