More than 13,000 fans filed into Madison Square Garden on a frigid night in the twenties outside with an optimism built on St. John’s’ current four-game win streak and some recent struggles by Seton Hall. But the Red Storm’s long-distance shooting in warm-ups seemed erratic. And the Pirates seemed prepped for a battle.
First Half
The Red Storm’s starting lineup remained unchanged for a fifth straight game. Ian Jackson was coming off his best performance of the year, an 18-point outburst against Villanova a few
days earlier. Was Jackson to continue his improvement? It was a topic of discussion in the pregame. Fans were split, with many responding, “We hope so”.
It was once again a starting five that included three front-court players. In contrast, Seton Hall opened with four guards and one forward. It didn’t take long for the Pirates to demonstrate how competitive their four-guard lineup would be, as just over a minute into the game, the Pirates pushed the ball quickly down court not once but twice to establish a 4-0 lead.
On a Sellers assist, Mitchell drove across the paint, went in-and-out, and hit a ten-foot jump shot to give St. John’s its first points of the game. An Ejiofor block caromed over to Hopkins, who charged downcourt and was fouled when driving from the left corner and made both foul shots for a tie, 4-4.
For the next six minutes, it was Dillon Mitchell with six points and the Pirates with 12 as Seton Hall built a 16-10 lead. The Pirates successfully attacked the rim and, when double-teamed by collapsing Red Storm defenders, they hit wide-open teammates from three-point distance.
Ejiofor was being double-teamed when he got the ball under the basket and began kicking the ball out to Sadiku Ibine Ayo, then Bryce Hopkins, then Mitchell for a trifecta of assists over a two-minute period, and, at 8:13 to play in the half, the Johnnies were down by one, 22-21.
For the remainder of the half, Seton Hall pulled away to a 38-32 lead.
Halftime
Most fans assessed the first half as a disappointment, stating we are being outplayed by a more aggressive team”. No doubt about it, the Johnnies were being outplayed by a more aggressive Pirate team. Seton Hall was in control of the boards with a 22-14 lead. The Johnnies’ press was ineffective, with no steals, and they struggled to slow the Pirates down as they crossed the midcourt line in three to four seconds after taking the ball out. It left them lots of time to run their sets.
On offense, Dillon Mitchell was impressive, scoring 10 points with Bryce Hopkins a basket behind him at eight points. Most notable was the fact that the four guards, Sanon, Sellers, Jackson, and Darling, scored a total of four points in the half.
Second Half
The Johnnies started the same five who started the game. Would halftime strategy tweaks bring some life to the team? Yes, it did, but it was not the Johnnies. It was the Pirates who scored the first nine points of the half on the way to a 47-32 lead at the 16:03 mark. At the TV timeout at 15:47, Dylan Darling came into the game. Eight seconds later, Ejiofor fed Hopkins under the basket for a layup, and the Red Storm were down by thirteen. Ejiofor was not scoring a lot, but he had good court vision. He drove into the paint and saw Sellers in the right corner.
A quick pass to an open Sellers resulted in a corner three, and the Pirate lead was down to ten, 47-37. Equally significant was the crowd, with a deafening roar, coming alive and chanting out “Defense, defense”. One fan declared, “Down by ten with fourteen minutes to play. Plenty of time!”
Lefteris Liotopoulous entered the game, and fans cheered, remembering his 17-point performance at Creighton on January 10th. Would he be the guard who would hit some three pointers to help the Johnnies back into the game?
But it would not be Liotopoulos or anyone else on the team. It was not the team’s shooting but their defense that the Johnnies would depend upon.
One fan noted that the Johnnies began to apply more intensive pressure when Seton Hall was taking the ball out from under their basket. One ten-second violation was called, and the fan noted that the Pirates were no longer crossing midcourt with 26 to 27 seconds to shoot. Now the pressure had them crossing with 22 to 23 seconds to shoot. Four seconds less. It may not seem much, but the Pirates found themselves hoisting many off-balance shots with time running out.
With 12 minutes to play, Mitchell found a cutting Hopkins and led him for a dunk and a nine-point deficit. The fans were on their feet and began to chant “Let’s Go Johnnies!” Thirty uneventful seconds passed until Ruben Prey, in for Ejiofor, sitting on the bench with four fouls, was on the foul line. Prey had been playing well on defense, but now the Johnnies needed him to score. He calmly sank two free throws to trim the lead to seven.
With 10:40 to play, Prey was playing in the post and received a pass. Quickly, he forwarded the ball to Hopkins, who hit a cutting Mitchell for a dunk.
The defense tightened, and Seton Hall put up another awkward missed shot. St John’s pushed the pace and found Hopkins, who missed a dunk, but Prey took down an offensive rebound, drew the foul, and made both free throws at the line to cut the deficit down to five with ten minutes still to play. The scoring for both teams slowed down with plenty of chances and misses, particularly missed free throws by Seton Hall. With six minutes to play, Joson Sanon made a pull-up mid-range jumper that caromed through the basket. The deficit was one, 53-52.
The teams traded free throws, and with 4:53 to play, Mitchell banked in a layup off the glass to give the Johnnies a 55-54 lead with five minutes left, their first of the half. With St. John’s again holding a one-point lead with 1:21 remaining, Ejiofor pulled down a critical offensive rebound, drew the foul, and made both free throws to give St. John’s a three-point lead. Off the inbound, Dylan Darling then stole the ball from Budd Clark and sprinted away for a layup that gave St. John’s a five-point lead and sent them on their way to a determined, hard-fought victory after a poor first twenty-five minutes.
Takeaway #1: Dillon Mitchell was everywhere
Simple as this: St. John’s does not come back to win this game without the work of Dillon Mitchell. It wasn’t just his leading statistics (17 points, 11 points). It was that he often brought the ball up and had no turnovers. It was the energy he brought to the game on both offense and defense. His ten points in the first half kept the Johnnies close at the break. It was his intensity on defense that found him all over the court in the second half that stymied the Pirates after their early second-half run.
Mitchell impressed with his ability to blow past the pressing Pirates. His ball-handling skills allowed Coach Pitino to play a large part of the game with three big men. The only blight on his spectacular performance was his 3-of-8 performance from the free-throw line.
Takeaway #2: St. John’s played their most physical ball when it mattered
St. John’s were rewarded for their persistence in pressing. The more effective press in the second half did not produce spectacular results, but there was no question that Seton Hall seemed flustered as the Johnnies made their second-half run. The Pirates had far fewer open shots in the last fifteen minutes. They were taking poor shots as the 30-second timer was expiring. Most important is the fact that the Red Storm protected the defensive boards. In the second half, the Johnnies won the rebound battle, 27-19.
Takeaway #3: Multiple St. John’s players can lead the offense on any given night
Imagine you are the opposing Big East coach and have to game plan against the Johnnies. At the beginning of the Big East season, you had to focus on Zuby Ejiofor, who led St. John’s in scoring the first three games. In the last four games, it was Sellers who stepped up on offense twice, Hopkins once, and now Mitchell. In the Villanova game, Hopkins led with twenty points, but Jackson also impressed with eighteen.
In the Georgetown game, Sanon and Darling joined Sellers and Jackson in double figures. In their Big East opener against DePaul, Darling led with a team-high 17 points.
While opponents are trying to figure out St. John’s, the Red Storm continue to figure out themselves, game by game, and what they are finding out is that they have several players who can command the offense on any given night.
Outlook
Tuesday night’s game was a battle that St. John’s won with determination, the “refuse to lose” character of the 2024-25 team, against one of the better opponents in the Big East. Some may be tempted to think that future games ahead are just “another game” until their matchup against first-place UConn on February 6th, but they are not. Big East teams take pride in every matchup with their conference foes, and St. John’s is a team that opponents will be energized to play, especially at Madison Square Garden.
The Johnnies showed heart against Seton Hall. The same heart is necessary for forty minutes while playing an away game at Xavier in two days. If the players key on their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses and come prepared, another road win is to be expected, but it will require a total team effort.
