Rasheem Dunn always imagined what it would be like to be on this court with this team.
He grew up in Brooklyn and attended a few St. John’s games at the Garden in recent years, watching high school teammate Shamorie Ponds light up the building, and couldn’t help but imagine what that must have felt like.
The Cleveland State transfer got to experience it firsthand Saturday afternoon, making the two winning plays in the Red Storm’s biggest win of the season, a gutsy 70-68 victory over West Virginia in the Holiday Festival in new coach Mike Anderson’s debut at MSG.
“That’s the reason I came here,” said Dunn, who last played in the Garden as a high school senior, winning the PSAL city championship for Thomas Jefferson in March 2016. “I felt like I can play on the big stage.”
Dunn’s two free throws with 5.0 seconds left, after he had stripped Derek Culver on the other end, saved St. John’s (8-2) from a late-game collapse that saw them blow a nine-point lead in the final minutes.
Dunn’s final line — 13 points on 3-of-11 shooting, five rebounds, four assists, four turnovers and two steals — wasn’t nearly as impressive as his late-game heroics, shaking off a poor shooting performance. St. John’s was reeling, in a deep scoring drought, yet Dunn wouldn’t let them lose, as the Red Storm notched their first win of the year over a top-100 foe per KenPom.com.
The lead was nine, following a Josh Roberts (nine rebounds) tip-in with 4:28 left, before St. John’s went cold and began wilting under the West Virginia (7-1) pressure. Sean McNeil’s 3-pointer pulled the Mountaineers even with 1:13 to go. After Nick Rutherford was blocked on the other end, West Virginia had a chance to go ahead. But Culver was stripped following an offensive rebound by Dunn and he got to the line on a drive around a double pick-and-roll, making two free throws to send St. John’s to a significant early-season win.
“We played balls to the wall, and I was doing everything in my power to get that win,” Dunn said after the Johnnies’ fourth-straight victory.
It was a microcosm of the afternoon for St. John’s, which didn’t shoot well — it made just 32 percent of its field goal attempts, including 2-of-17 3-pointers — but did all the little things against a physical opponent.
The Johnnies shot a season-high 81.5 percent (22-of-27) from the free-throw line, highlighted by Dunn going 7-for-7, were plus-two on the offensive glass, plus-eight in turnover margin, attempted 15 more free throws and were even in the paint against the bigger Mountaineers. The bench scored 25 points, including a season-high eight from Greg Williams Jr. It made up for off performances from starters Mustapha Heron and Julian Champagnie, who combined for 13 points on 3-of-21 shooting, and LJ Figueroa (team-high 17 points) going scoreless after halftime.
“This game came down to toughness, this came down to grit, this came down to determination,” Anderson said. “These guys are starting to put it on display. You shoot 32 percent, and play against a team such as West Virginia, you got to find a way, and I think we found it in our defense. … We got to be a team that is going to fight.”
They were certainly that kind of team Saturday. Just ask West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who praised the Red Storm’s tenacity and aggressiveness while ripping his own group’s inability to match it. That was the difference, the longtime coach said, in the end, even crediting Anderson with outcoaching him.
“That was our toughest opponent up to this day,” Anderson said, “and we rose to the occasion.”