QUEENS, N.Y. – Sunday night, two teams that at first glance seem to be in different development stages matched up. You had a team in St. John’s that is loaded with upperclassmen who have been through some growing pains, some tough losses as well as a big win or two. They’re also largely mature physically and appear to have largely grown up by now. And you had a team in Providence that is young, inexperienced and immature physically, a team that occasionally might look like a better team than they are and then just as easily not look as good.
Interestingly, before the game, one writer, when asked how the young Friars are, said they are a little like St. John’s a couple of years ago. At that time, the Red Storm were loaded with freshmen and very much looked the part of a young team.
But on this night, the teams looked like their development stages were reversed. The Friars took home a 74-59 road win because of exactly that, especially late in the game.
For a while, that wasn’t the case. The Red Storm looked like the more mature team physically, getting baskets inside from their post players and holding a substantial advantage with points in the paint. Justin Brownlee made a rare start and had 14 points on 7-13 shooting, getting several of those baskets in the paint. Turnovers hurt the Red Storm, as they had 15 of their season-high 23 in the first half, keeping them from breaking the game open.
The Friars stayed within striking distance in the second half after a late 8-0 run in the first half made it a close game heading into the locker room. The Red Storm got the lead up to eight, but the Friars quickly made it a two-point game, setting the stage for what decided the game. It followed a Dwight Hardy fast break layup with 7:53 left that gave the Red Storm a 54-50 lead.
All night long, they had struggled from the field. They shot just over 30 percent in the first half. They couldn’t convert Red Storm turnovers into points the way they want to, cashing in the 15 first-half turnovers into just 12 points. But they never let the Red Storm open the lead up, which is where St. John’s head coach Norm Roberts felt they lost the game.
The next 14 points were scored by the Friars, and before you knew it, the Friars had a double-digit lead. The young team was the more poised team, hanging in there through some struggles. The veteran team that had won some close games and held off teams then started playing like the young team might in many cases, as they tried to do too much. It was as if St. John’s, once they fell behind by double digits, went looking for a ten-point play. The result: 2-13 shooting in the final eight minutes as they were outscored 24-5.
“We started rushing things,” said junior forward D.J. Kennedy. “With four minutes left, it was still a close game, and we started rushing things. It’s thrown back on us, the leaders of this team. We’ve got to be able to come through down the stretch. Today we didn’t do that.”
“We just felt like we needed to come back so fast,” said junior guard Paris Horne. “I felt like it kind of hurt us.”
Not only did the Friars struggle from the field, but they didn’t produce a lot of turnovers out of the press until the final minutes. Instead, many of the Red Storm’s turnovers came in the halfcourt, which is where Malik Boothe’s absence due to a groin injury certainly didn’t help. Roberts wouldn’t chalk the turnovers up solely to Boothe’s absence, and rightly so. The Friars simply didn’t capitalize enough.
How the Friars responded to their offensive struggles and the Red Storm to theirs made all the difference. But it was still a surprise as to who pulled through.
“With having so many new faces and young people on our team, we’ve been focused as a team on effort all season,” said Providence head coach Keno Davis. “I think that’s what won us the game tonight, we had tremendous effort and work ethic on the defensive end, even when St. John’s seemed to have our number as far as getting the ball in the post and getting easy opportunities. I thought our guys worked extremely hard tonight.”
Indeed, the Friars fought through when St. John’s didn’t. They may not do this often this season, but on this night they played like the veteran team that’s had the growing pains already instead of the young team that still has some of that ahead.
