D’Angelo Harrison has done so much for St. John’s this season, perhaps too much, it seemed late Wednesday.
The senior guard — favorite for Big East Player of the Year and the third-leading scorer in school history — was enduring his second straight unthinkably awful shooting performance. He had missed 14 of his first 16 shots and the Red Storm, looking lost without the help of their leader, were in an eight-point second-half hole against eighth-place Marquette.
St. John’s no longer could rely on its most reliable player, so often, its only consistent offensive option.
It was hard to watch. It was hard to imagine. A win was hard to envision.
But even with Harrison, who was playing through a strained calf, unable to do what his team expected him to, his teammates emerged equally capable in their greatest moment of need, pulling out a must-win game, 60-57, at Madison Square Garden.
“To be able to win when D’Angelo Harrison goes 3-for-18 is a good thing that our best shooter and All-American candidate has an off night, but others step up and are able to offset that poor shooting and still find a way to get a victory,” said St. John’s coach Steve Lavin. “Clearly getting a ‘W’ was a step in the right direction for this group.”
Despite his seismic struggles, Harrison hit two key free throws to put St. John’s (13-5, 2-4) up 58-55 with 14.7 seconds remaining, with Phil Greene bringing the lead back to three in the final seconds. That set up Matt Carlino’s game-tying 3-point attempt at the buzzer, which missed long.
Carlino (21 points) had swung the game in the second half after hitting four straight 3-pointers to give the Golden Eagles (10-8, 2-4) a 43-35 lead with less than 13 minutes remaining — Marquette’s first lead since the game’s first basket — but a defensive switch from St. John’s allowed momentum to swing back in its favor.
Sir’Dominic Pointer, already in the midst of a brilliant all-around performance, smothered Carlino, and held him without another point until the final seconds. Carlino missed his final six shots from the field, while the Red Storm ran off a 9-0 run to take back the lead.
As Rysheed Jordan (15 points) displayed continued improvement and initiative on offense, Pointer controlled the game without the ball, finishing with an eye-popping line of 15 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, six blocks and two steals.
“Maybe his best game of his career here. This might have been his best game yet,” Lavin said of the senior forward. “Carlino didn’t score on him, he completely shut his water off once we made that switch. … You look at that Dom Pointer line, it’s pretty amazing. He is a really special basketball player.”
St. John’s, which led 26-24 at the half, took the lead for good on a layup by Pointer with under three minutes left, holding on when the lead was cut to one on two different occasions.
The Red Storm held on, the only thing that mattered, a win that mattered so much more when it seemed their star’s struggles aligned the stars for another devastating loss.
“Over the past couple years we’ve depended on him a lot and this year we depend on him, but we got other people who stepped their game up,” Pointer said of Harrison, who was not available to reporters to discuss his condition. “Even when he has a bad night we can win, so that helps our team and it’ll help us in the tournament and further down the line.”
The line just grew a little bit longer.