PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The script just doesn’t change. Not over the last month.
Time and again, St. John’s has led a quality opponent at halftime. And on each occasion, it gets outplayed over the final 20 minutes.
It happened against No. 1 Connecticut and twice against No. 4 Marquette, and history repeated itself again Tuesday night.
A five-point lead vanished quickly. The defense was nowhere to be found.
The offense couldn’t execute nearly enough and settled for ill-advised shots.
And, as a result, the Johnnies NCAA Tournament at-large hopes feels all but over barring a winning streak to end the season.
Providence owned most of the final 20 minutes like so many of St. John’s opponents have of late, and went on to a 75-72 victory, sending the skidding Johnnies to their seventh loss in nine games.
“We intend to win our final six games,” Rick Pitino said after the Johnnies fell to 2-8 in Quad 1 games. It has held halftime leads in six of those losses.
Pitino shook up his starting lineup, replacing struggling center Joel Soriano with Zuby Ejiofor.
While Ejiofor had some bright moments, he dealt with foul trouble and Soriano’s problems didn’t improve. He managed just nine points and seven rebounds before fouling out with 3:29 left, and was soundly outplayed by Providence’s Josh Oduro (28 points).
The Friars (16-9, 7-7) shot 54 percent from the field after halftime, and St. John’s failed to hit a 3-point shot in the second half for the second straight game.
The backcourt of Daniss Jenkins and Jordan Dingle combined to score 21 points on 8 of 24 shooting. RJ Luis had 16 points and 14 rebounds to lead St. John’s (14-11, 6-8) and Sean Conway added 11.
“It’s not fun losing on the road, but I’m really proud of these guys,” Pitino said. “They fought their asses off the entire night. It’s just that we couldn’t guard their center in the low post, and that destroyed us.”
He added: “We should be able to guard him one-on-one in the low post. We’re taller. We should be able to guard him, so that’s something we have to work on.”
The Johnnies, down seven late, got even on a Jenkins jumper with 1:45 left. But they let Corey Floyd Jr. score on the other end after he beat the press and Oduro pushed the lead to four with 41.5 seconds left.
St. John’s did have a shot to tie it in the final seconds, but Dingle and Jenkins both missed badly. Pitino opted not to use a timeout, because he figured Providence would foul if he did.
“I was thinking about it the entire time, but I know they’re going to foul and as long as we get a look at the basket, it’s OK,” he said.
Down 13 early on, St. John’s closed the first half on a 23-5 run, taking a five-point lead into the break.
The momentum was short-lived, as has so often been the case over the last month. Providence quickly retook the lead with a 10-2 run, with Oduro scoring eight points in the spurt.
The Friars pushed the lead to six after a Devin Carter drive and had outscored St. John’s by 11 at that point in the second half. The Red Storm never led again.
It was exactly a month ago that this season seemed so full of promise. St. John’s was tied for first place in the Big East, off to its best league start in 23 years at 4-1. Everything has gone wrong since.
“Stop with the 4-1, it’s ridiculous. It’s who you’re playing when you play them,” Pitino said. “I keep telling you we’re not a great team. We are going to win the Big East, we are going to go to NCAA [Tournaments].
“It’s not just not going to be this year, winning the Big East. It’s my first year. … Give us a chance to develop the program. It’s not realistic in this conference to come in the first year and just kick everybody’s ass.”
