St. John's Suffers Crucial Loss to Creighton 81-78

 

    Poor execution down the stretch and uncharacteristically poor shooting games from forwards Julian Champagnie and Aaron Wheeler cost St. John’s dearly as they squandered another chance at an elusive quad one win, losing for just the second time at Carnesecca Arena 81-78 to Creighton last night.

     The Johnnies had rallied from a 75-71 deficit, scoring five straight points when reserve center Esahia Nyiwe connected on a 3-pointer off a steal and pass from Dylan Adde-Wusu and a moment later Montez Mathis hit a 2-pointer off another steal and pass, this one from Posh Alexander. They took the lead 76-75 with 3:16 left to play.

  After that, St. John’s faltered and Creighton took full advantage. Mathis missed a free throw following the hoop and harm and St. John’s lead 76-75. Creighton’s Arthur Kamula connected on a jumper and Creighton retook the lead. Following a Mathis miss Creighton’s Ryan Hawkins followed in a Ryan Kalkbrenner miss to give the Blue Jays a three-point margin. Adde-Wusu would convert an offensive rebound for the Johnnies’ last two points but following a pair of Kalkbrenner free throws that gave Creighton their final margin Adde-Wusu made an errant pass to Aaron Wheeler with 5 seconds left. After that St. John’s still had a final chance. Following a missed one-and-one front end by Alex O’Connell, Wheeler took the rebound, pushed it quickly and got a good look at a game tying triple. The ball bounced off the board and rim, and Creighton had a well-earned road win.

   The Blue Jays got that win thanks to a dominant effort by their front court stars Hawkins and Kalkbrenner. They combined for 44 points on 18-31 shooting as well as 14 rebounds. Kalkbrenner’s 7’1” presence at the rim anchored Creighton’s defense and had much to do with the shooting struggles of Champagnie and Wheeler. They combined to shoot just 4-26 from the floor. While the two Ryan’s were terrific Creighton’s MVP for the game was freshman guard Trey Alexander, who stepped in at point guard after Ryan Nembhard, the likely Big East Rookie of the Year suffered a broken wrist in a collision with Posh Alexander with 12:55 left in the game. Trey’s good work at point guard included game totals of 18 points. 6 assists and 4 turnovers. Most significantly he helped orchestrate a 2^nd half effort that saw Creighton commit just 7 turnovers, after committing 10 in the opening stanza.

   St. John’s nearly overcame all of that to earn a badly needed win. They rallied from a 10-point deficit in the games early moments to take a 46-39 lead at halftime. With Champagnie and Wheeler struggling, and in the absence of improving center Joel Soriano, the Johnnies got 13 points from Mathis and great bench production from Nyiwe and freshman O’mar Stanley. Nyiwe started for Soriano who missed the game with a left knee contusion and contributed 7 points 5 boards and 2 blocks. Stanley who got extra minutes at both forward and center, matched his season high with 14 points and 3 boards.

  With 3 regular season games left St. John’s chances at an at-large NCAA bid suffered a critical blow. While games against Xavier and at Marquette offer chances to gain ground, Sunday’s game at DePaul is one the Johnnies must win just to keep from losing it. St. John’s only remaining path to the big dance may well be a conference tournament win, a herculean task that given the strength of the league will be nearly impossible to accomplish.