There wasn’t a better way for Rick Pitino to secure his 900th official career win.
With the Hall of Fame head coach facing his son Richard and his Xavier Musketeers, St. John’s pulled a rabbit out of their hat for a second straight game by coming back from a 16-point second-half deficit and stealing an 88-83 victory in Cincinnati on Saturday afternoon.
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St. John’s couldn’t ask for a better start, taking a 20-11 lead with the help of eleven early points for Ian Jackson, but quickly ran out of gas when their reserves entered the game and Xavier picked up enough speed to seize momentum and maintain it even once the Red Storm’s starters returned, shooting 50% from the field and 7-fo-14 from three in the half. The Musketeers wrapped up the first half with a Fetty Wapping, outscoring the Red Storm by a total of 38-17 to take a 12-point lead into the locker room.
The Red Storm’s luck didn’t initially change out of halftime as the Musketeers built their lead out to 55-39 with 17:05 remaining in the second half, but a switch flipped in the visitors at that point. St. John’s answered with a 16-1 run that almost negated their deficit. Xavier forward Tre Carroll scored the Musketeers’ next eleven points to maintain their lead, but St. John’s quickly took control and kickstarted a 13-3 run after Carroll headed to the bench for a breather with 9:09 remaining. Oziyah Sellers converted an old-fashioned three-point play to give St. John’s a 75-70 lead with 6:04 left.
When it seemed like St. John’s’ recently assembled three-man frontcourt finally met their match, they elevated their play in the second half. Dillon Mitchell was consistent throughout the game, flirting with a triple-double with 17 points, seven rebounds, and a team-high six assists, while also providing four steals. Bryce Hopkins put his forgettable 2-of-10 first half behind, scoring 14 of his team-high 18 points in the second half and putting Xavier on their heels with his physical post performance. Zuby Ejiofor may have fouled out late, but he gave the Musketeers fits with 13 points, 11 rebounds, three steals, and two blocks.
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Both teams continued trading haymakers to close the game. After St. John’s took a 79-74 lead with 2:41 remaining, Tre Carroll buried a step-back three-point jumper over Ruben Prey to trim the Red Storm’s lead to two, his most difficult make on a day the unguardable senior made plenty of circus shots. Carroll led the Musketeers with a career-high 31 points on 12-of-22 shooting and 3-of-5 from three.
St. John’s needed a player to step up and close it out against the Musketeers, and their clutch offense came from an unlikely source. Dylan Darling scored all eleven of his points in the second half, including a pair of critical buckets that put the Johnnies ahead each time.
Darling responded to a game-tying Malik Messina-Moore layup with his own finger roll with 1:20 remaining. After Filip Borovicanin put the Red Storm on the brink with a go-ahead and-one layup that gave Xavier an 82-81 lead, Darling froze Messina-Moore with a crossover and drilled a step-back three that would prove to be the game-winning basket for St. John’s with 53 seconds to go. After the game, Rick Pitino said Darling had “balls as big as church bells” for his late heroics.
St. John’s shut down Xavier’s last chance to get even, forcing a miss by Tre Carroll on the very next possession to prove he wasn’t invincible, and Ruben Prey iced the game with a putback layup to give the Red Storm an 86-82 advantage with 15 seconds left.
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The road to win number 1,000 for Rick Pitino begins on Wednesday, January 28, when St. John’s plays host to the Butler Bulldogs at Madison Square Garden (7:00 p.m., Peacock).
