Roger Rubin: St. John's shifts focus to UConn after crushing Creighton for 13th consecutive victory
St. John's guard Dylan Darling drives the ball past Creighton guard Blake Harper in the second half of a Big East men’s basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
St. John’s ascended to the top of the Big East standings on Wednesday night, and in their first game since then, the 17th-ranked Red Storm raced past Creighton on Saturday like a long-distance runner who's finally glimpsed the finish line.
The Red Storm played what coach Rick Pitino deemed “their best defensive performance by far” in an 81-52 victory over the Bluejays before 19,328 at the Garden to run their winning streak to 13 games, their longest since a 19-game run in 1984-85.
It was something to behold. After St. John’s (22-5, 15-1) went ahead by double-digits in the first two minutes, Creighton got no closer than five points for 27 seconds of the first half and trailed by at least 10 the entire second half. Coming off their stunning upset victory over UConn, the Bluejays were limited to a season-low 0.70 points per possession, shot 32% and committed 17 turnovers.
“[This] was brilliant at all facets of the game,” Pitino said. “Yes, we didn't make threes certainly, but every other thing was brilliant . . . We played a great game tonight, one of the best games of the season.”
This is the kind of performance St. John’s is going to need to replicate Wednesday when it meets No. 6 Connecticut in Hartford, the most challenging game on its schedule.
Sure, no game was more anticipated than the Red Storm’s nine-point win over the Huskies at the Garden on Feb. 3. But this is a road game, and UConn got knocked from the top of the standings by Creighton (14-14, 8-9) on Wednesday in its most recent home game. The Huskies (25-3, 15-2) earned a 73-63 victory over Villanova (21-6, 12-4) in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon.
The Red Storm hadn’t played an exceptional game since that victory over the Huskies. They went 3-0 but really didn't demonstrate their “A” game in any of them.
“When they realized that [Creighton] beat Connecticut, that if you allow them to run their offenses and go back door and get threes off, you can lose to them,” Pitino said. “So they were totally locked into it. And that's what we're after: that type of defense.”
“It's just all about preparation now . . . We played a great defensive game today and we’re going to need another next week,” Dillon Mitchell said. “Now it's just about being consistent, [doing] the work on it [to] get better at it. We just know that not only is going to win us games, that can win us championships.”
Mitchell was one of a number of standouts for the Red Storm against Creighton with six points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and zero turnovers. St. John’s outscored Creighton by 24 points during his 29 minutes on the court.
“It’s his length on top of that press, his ability to switch [defensively] . . . and then he's a terrific rebounder,'' Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. "He doesn't shoot it great, so a lot of people don't guard him. And he's learned to understand how to impact the game when he's not guarded and today was with the pass — seven assists and no turnovers.”
Dylan Darling continued his stretch of brilliant play with 17 points and some tenacious defense, recording three steals in 29 minutes off the bench.
“Darling's changed their team in a lot of ways the last six weeks,” McDermott said. “There’s a confidence about him and there's a tenacity and toughness defensively. Obviously, they have that across the roster, but . . . he's making huge plays on both ends of the floor.”
Bryce Hopkins had 15 points and 10 rebounds and was greeted by St. John’s fans with an especially warm welcome in his first appearance before them since the ruthless takedown by Providence’s Duncan Powell that set off a bench-clearing melee last weekend. Zuby Ejiofor added 15 points and was rested for the final 11 minutes of the game.
While this next game against UConn looms incredibly large in St. John’s quest to repeat as the regular-season conference champion, the players seem to finally have absorbed the Pitino approach of treating every game as if it’s the NCAA Tournament and one must survive to advance.
Now, even from the view atop the conference standings, the Red Storm cannot be thinking about what a win over UConn would mean. They must only think about beating the Huskies.
“You can't get too high,” Darling said. “We're going to wake up tomorrow and focus on UConn. We're going to have to be engaged in that the whole time and be prepared.”
Jackson sits. Ian Jackson, who suffered an ankle sprain Wednesday, could have played but was held out because he had not practiced. Pitino said he will play against UConn . . . Kelvin Odih had soreness in his right leg after Friday’s practice and was unavailable.
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.
