St. John’s Drops Eleventh Straight Game

(Catalina Fragoso – Double G Media)

The Johnnies just can’t seem to buy a win as they dropped their 11^th straight game last night, against Seton Hall. Many critics knew it would be a tough season for St. John’s as they have a whole new team, with a good amount of freshman, however, they have reached a new low.

Losing Marcus Lovett proved to be detrimental to the team’s success this season. However, despite their lack of success, the future is bright for this young team with the player’s they are bringing in next season, combined with their young freshman talent.

The Johnnies got off to a good start last night, after scoring the first five points of the game and leading the game as many as eight midway through the first half. The Johnnies led 18-10, with 10:07 left in the first half, led by Christian Jones and Ron Mvouika. However, Seton Hall came right back with a 17-4 run to take the lead with five minutes left in the half. They would not look back as they led 34-26 at halftime. Seton Hall’s Isaiah Whitehead sank four three-pointers and scored eight of his 10 first half points in the last eight minutes. He would finish with a game-high 19 points.

Seton Hall would go on to open the half on a 15-3 run and easily ran away with the victory.  Angel Delgado posted his ninth double-double, finishing with 15 points and 17 rebounds.

Mullin said after the game on Delgado’s play, “Tonight he was pretty damn good. We went zone to try and keep them from hurting us with dribble penetration. I thought it worked pretty well, but they really crashed the boards.”

The Seton Hall Pirates dominated heavily in the paint, scoring 44 of their 79 points in the paint. They also dominated the boards, 56-40 and made it hard for the Johnnies to get in a shooting rhythm. St. John’s finished with a season low 29.2 field goal percentage.

On the Johnnies end, Christian Jones led the team with 15 points on 6-12 shooting. Kassoum Yakwe added eight points and a team high 10 rebounds, while blocking four shots as well. Mussini did not have his greatest game, posting only nine points.

Chris Mullin gave praise to Seton Hall’s performance saying, “They’ve given great effort. There’s no question about that. I was just telling [our team] it’s really important how they handle this.” He would also say, “The good thing is we have [three days] until we play again. It’s really important how they handle these next few days.”

After losing this many games in a row, it can be hard for the team to focus but Mullin wants to make sure they stay on track and play hard throughout the rest of the season.

St. John’s returns to action Sunday hosting No. 6/6 Villanova at Madison Square Garden. FOX will carry the national telecast with tip-off scheduled for noon at “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”