St. John’s 88 Rutgers 78 Their star was struggling and their center was sitting on the bench with a suit on his back and a cast on his wrist.
But for all the questions, St. John’s had just enough answers. For all the runs that Rutgers made at them, the Red Storm made one more.
St. John’s went on a 7-0 run in the final minutes to turn a three-point lead into a 10-point bulge. And when the spurt was over, the Red Storm had scraped and clawed their way to a 88-78 win last night in front of 10,689 at the Garden.
St. John’s (ranked 11th in The Post’s Top 25) was clinging to a 74-71 lead that was tenuous at best with less than five minutes to play. The Red Storm had made run after run, but were unable to shake the pesky Scarlet Knights – until this last one.
Star forward Ron Artest, who had a modest game with 12 points, started the run at 4:19 with a free throw and 30 seconds later freshman Bootsy Thornton hit another. Then Thornton hit a straight-ahead 3-pointer with just under three minutes left to push St. John’s lead to eight, the largest it had been all night.
And when reserve Lavor Postell blocked a drive by Rutgers’ Jeff Greer (who scored a game-high 23 points), that ignited a Red Storm break. Barkley ran the floor and dished to Artest for a thunderous dunk that sent the Garden crowd into a frenzy and made the final two minutes academic. Postell finished with a team-high 21 points off the bench, the Red Storm had their 12th straight home win, and their fourth straight win over Rutgers.
“I wanted to say thanks to Jayson Williams [of Nets, a former St. John’s star],” Postell said. “He was on the sideline talking to me and he’s a veteran, so I listened to what he said. He said crash the boards, play like I’m the best player out there. I just played with a lot of heart tonight.”
St. John’s (15-3, 6-1 Big East), off to its best start since 1990-91, played without center Tyrone Grant. The team captain sprained his right wrist last Saturday against Seton Hall, then got banged up in a car accident on Tuesday. He was fitted for a soft cast yesterday, and St. John’s started Albert Richardson in his place.
Coach Mike Jarvis expected the Red Storm to pick up the slack, and his players responded.
“What I told them [before the game] was Grant’s a player – other people are gonna have to step up,” Jarvis said. “They’re gonna have to grab one more rebound. They’re gonna have to make that one extra pass.”
Rutgers (10-6, 3-4) also played without its center, Rashod Kent. The freshman injured his hip in practice last Thursday, and re-injured it in Wednesday’s loss to Miami. And while Grant has been in many ways St. John’s heart and soul – giving them 11.5 points, a team-high 8.9 rebounds and rugged defense – Kent may have become even more indispensable to the Scarlet Knights.
Kent’s 75 percent shooting from the field would lead the nation if he had enough attempts, and the team clearly wasn’t the same without him. After Kent re-injured himself, Alvydas Tenys and undersized junior Joel Salvi combined to score just one point against the Hurricanes. And while Tenys fared a bit better against St. John’s with 13 points and Rutgers shot a torrid 61.4 percent, the Scarlet Knights got killed on the backboards.
Already the Big East’s second-worst rebounding team with Kent, St. John’s mauled them 34-22 on the boards without their center.
“When we made runs, they never let us get ahead,” Rutgers coach Kevin Bannon said. “They’re a very good basketball team. We’re a team that has a chance to be a very good basketball team.”
The last time these teams played, on Dec. 2 in Piscataway, Kent staked Rutgers to an 18-4 lead before St. John’s speed and athleticism carried it to a 77-73 win. But last night the game was even right from the start.
Rutgers came out in a 2-3 zone for the first time all season in hopes of keeping the Red Storm’s athletes under control, and until the final moments, it worked. Neither team led by more than four points until the final minute of the first half. St. John’s led by four at 39-35 when Erick Barkley hit a straight-ahead 3-pointer to give the Red Storm a 42-35 lead.
St. John’s took a 42-37 lead into the locker room, despite being outshot, 53.8 percent to 44.7. But thanks to 19 first-half rebounds and eight first-half steals, the Red Storm had that five-point cushion.
The teams traded blows for the entire second half, with Greer continuously slicing five- and six-point leads down to a basket, only to have St. John’s turn Rutgers back. But Postell ate up Greer to score 16 second-half points and kept the Red Storm just out of Rutgers’ reach.
Twice he accounted for six straight St. John’s points to stave off a Rutgers run. And with St. John’s leading 74-71, the Red Storm made a final run of their own.
