St. John’s has a pulse, however faint. 

The Red Storm are still breathing, and now they have momentum. 

After blowing out Georgetown on Thursday, the Red Storm rallied from nine down in the second half Saturday to get by Butler, 75-72, despite the absence down the stretch of injured star point guard Posh Alexander. In their personal house of horrors, Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, St. John’s owned the final minutes and won in the historic building for the first time since 2014. 

“Today the message before the game, and Georgetown, was by any means necessary,” junior star Julian Champagnie said. “We’re taking that into consideration and making that our thing. I think it’s coming together.” 

St. John’s went on the road following a gut-punch home loss to No. 15 Providence on Tuesday, and won consecutive league games in the span of 40 hours. The victories have given them life entering a massive week at the Garden, with No. 12 Villanova and No. 17 Connecticut set to visit. 

“It’s go time,” coach Mike Anderson said. “It’s that time of the year.” 

One of the team’s weaknesses — free-throw shooting — was a strength on Saturday. St. John’s went 21-for-25 from the charity stripe, including 9-for-10 in the final 2:15. Ranked 334th in the nation in free-throw shooting at 64.9 percent prior to the game, Anderson dedicated the entire shootaround Friday to the line. 

It worked. 

“You look at the games we’ve come up short, it’s because [we were] not making free throws,” Anderson said. 

Most importantly, the St. John’s defense showed up late after struggling most of the afternoon to earn the Quad 2 win. Over the first 25 minutes, Butler (11-12, 4-8 Big East) was red hot from deep, hitting nine 3-pointers. But the rest of the way, the Bulldogs hit just one, in part due to Anderson’s switch to a zone. 

Over the final 8:35, St. John’s (13-9, 5-6) outscored Butler by seven, a stretch that began with four consecutive points from Aaron Wheeler (13 points, five rebounds) to pull St. John’s even at 62. 

Dylan Addae-Wusu gave the Red Storm the lead for good with one free throw and Tareq Coburn, the Hofstra transfer who played his first crunch-time minutes of the season, hit two more at the line to push the lead to three with 1:19 left. 

Champagnie had his second straight quality game, notching 21 points and eight rebounds, and hit four clutch free throws in the final 19.6 seconds to seal the victory. 

“[Give] credit to our guys,” Anderson said. “They’ve done a good job of taking ownership of the team. You’re seeing them huddle up and talk about what they want to get done.” 

The only negative was the right-ankle injury Alexander suffered late in the game. On a drive and dish to Joel Soriano (12 points), he landed awkwardly and turned his ankle. Alexander tried to play through the pain, but he came out for good with 3:26 to go and was seen icing his ankle on the bench. After the game, Alexander was helped off the floor, so he wouldn’t have to put any weight on the ankle. 

“He couldn’t go,” said Anderson, who had no further updates. 

There may be two shorthanded teams at the Garden on Tuesday. Villanova’s star point guard, Collin Gillespie, suffered a right ankle injury Saturday in a rout of UConn, and his status is uncertain. The Wildcats were already without Justin Moore (ankle). 

That could be the break St. John’s needs to put together a desperately needed win streak. At the least, the Red Storm have given themselves a chance for a big week by pulling out the victory on Saturday. 

“I just believe we’re trending in the right direction,” Anderson said. “We’re getting more pieces to the puzzle that are stepping up. 

“This team,” he added, “is becoming a team.”