No one was quite sure which St. John’s team was going to show up to face Georgetown Wednesday night in the first round of the BIG EAST Tournament. The one which looked like a national powerhouse when the Johnnies knocked off Duke and Villanova - two top four teams at the time - or the one that dropped 11 straight games to open the BIG EAST season, including a humbling 17-point home loss to DePaul.
Heck, no one was even sure if there would be a Shamorie Ponds sighting against the Hoyas after the Red Storm’s stellar sophomore - an All-BIG EAST First Team pick this season- missed the Johnnies’ final two games of the regular season while nursing an abdominal injury.
And no one was sure if the third time would be the charm for St. John’s head coach Chris Mullin, who lost each of his first two encounters this season versus his old-nemesis-turned-close-friend Patrick Ewing.
Turns out Ponds was fine, St. John’s looked more heavyweight than lightweight and the third time most definitely turned out to be the charm for Mullin as the Johnnies got 26 points from Ponds and used a stifling defense in the second half that held Georgetown to just 29 points as the Red Storm posted an 88-77 victory in a BIG EAST Tournament first-round game before a lively crowd of 16,866 at the Garden.
St. John’s (16-16) now moves on to face top-seeded Xavier in Thursday’s quarterfinal-round opener at noon ET.
In the Wednesday nightcap, No. 7 Marquette barely survived against No. 10 DePaul when Blue Demons’ junior sharpshooter Matt Strus missed on a three-point attempt with two seconds to play as Marquette survived, 72-69. The Golden Eagles will now face second-seeded Villanova Thursday night at 7 p.m. in the quarterfinals.
“I think except for a couple of games, each and every game we showed that we can compete with anybody in the country,” said Ponds, who immediately put any lingering concerns about his health to rest when he scored 11 of the Johnnies’ first 14 points in the game. “Our mindset going into the BIG EAST Tournament was one game at a time. We know we can do it.”
St. John’s trailed, 48-42, at halftime as Georgetown’s Jessie Govan was basically having his way with the Johnnies, scoring 20 of his game-high 28 points in the first half as the Hoyas shot 51.6% in the first half. That all changed drastically after halftime.
“I think we really just got more aggressive,” Mullin said. “At halftime I tried everything - we played zone and full-court press and we just weren’t playing defense. And they flipped the switch at halftime and did a much better job.”
And Ponds’ wingmen became much more productive in the second half as well, with Marvin Clark II, Tariq Owens, Bashir Ahmed and Justin Simon all finishing the game in double figures. Simon ended with a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds.
St. John’s took the lead for good when Owens (14 points, 7 rebounds) knocked down a short jumper for a 61-59 lead with 10:43 left to play. After the Johnnies built the lead to eight points at 67-59 on a three-point play by Simon with 9:17 to go, the Hoyas pulled within five points on four different occasions. The final time came after a pair of free throws by Jagan Mosely pulled Georgetown within 73-68 with 6:04 to play. But the Red Storm scored seven straight points to bump their lead to 80-68 with 3:50 to play and the Hoyas never threatened again.
For Mullin, getting a tournament win for his team was far more important than getting a personal victory against Ewing.
“I don’t really look at it as a coaching matchup. I don’t,” Mullin said. “I know I’d rather coach against him than play against him. It’s a lot easier on my body.”
Mullin and the Johnnies will now have to deal with a quick turnaround when they face the top-seeded Musketeers Thursday at noon.
“Xavier is one of the most physical teams, I think, in the league offensively and defensively,” Mullin said. “We’ll get on that a little bit tonight and do a quick little film in the morning and be ready to go.”
Xavier swept the Johnnies in the regular season. The Musketeers won, 88-82, at the Cintas Center on Jan. 17 and held on for a 73-68 win at Carnesecca Arena on Jan. 30.
The nightcap between Marquette and DePaul proved to be quite the entertaining affair as the Blue Demons rallied from a 39-27 halftime deficit to throw a major scare in a Marquette team that is hoping to use the BIG EAST Tournament to enhance its resume for the NCAA Tournament.
The Blue Demons caught fire offensively in the second half and tied the game at 61-61 with under 6:00 to play after a thunderous jam by Strus.
Marquette (19-12) quickly rebounded and took a 70-66 lead with 32.3 seconds to play after Sam Hauser sank both ends of a 1-and-1. But Strus, who finished with 22 points, was not quite finished and he kept the Blue Demons’ hopes of an upset alive when he bagged a long three-pointer from near the DePaul bench with 21.3 seconds to play to pull DePaul within 70-69.
The Golden Eagles promptly turned the ball over with 11.5 seconds to play which gave DePaul one final shot at its first BIG EAST Tournament win since 2014. And with the clock winding down, Strus somehow found himself unguarded behind the three-point line and he let go with his potential game-winner. But his shot caught the front of the rim and Marquette’s Andrew Rowsey grabbed the rebound, was fouled and sank a pair of free throws with 0.3 seconds left and the Golden Eagles had survived.
Marin Maric also finished with 22 points for DePaul while Rowsey led all scorers with 25 points. Hauser chipped in with 16 points and Sacar Anim added 14 for Marquette.
“It’s a great win for our team and our program,” Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “We fought through a lot of adversity. Our guys showed great toughness. We have tremendous respect for DePaul but our guys found a way to win and that’s what this time of year is about.”
The game ended at exactly midnight which means for its troubles, Marquette has exactly 19 hours to celebrate its victory before they meet No. 2 seed Villanova in the quarterfinals. The Wildcats swept the season series from Marquette during the regular season, winning, 100-90, at home on Jan. 3 before posting a narrow 85-82 victory in Milwaukee on Jan. 28.
“We’re playing (Thursday) and in March that’s what you want to do,” Wojciechowski said. “We’ll do our best to prepare ourselves against a Villanova team that’s as good as any in the United States.”