When we last saw the St. John’s Red Storm, they were in the midst of going from eight points up to six feet under against Cincinnati on Wednesday night.
The season seemed buried under shattered confidence, battered bodies and the beat-down of four straight losses and seven defeats in the last eight games.
The grave was being dug. St. John’s coach Norm Roberts met the undertakers at the gate and grabbed their shovels. Then Rutgers came to the Garden last night.
“I told our guys in the locker room [before last night’s game], ‘This could be a character win,’ ” said Roberts. “Because I think we got a lot of character in our locker room. We got a lot of proud guys who work extra hard and we’ve been dealt some bad cards.
“So I told them, ‘A lot of people said you can’t come back from the loss to Cincinnati,'” continued Roberts . “And I said, ‘We can.’ ”
St. John’s did. The Red Storm got a sensational career-high 27 points on 12-of-13 shooting from emerging star Paris Horne and stomped Rutgers, 70-59. The Johnnies also got a remarkable bounce-back game from D.J. Kennedy, who had been ejected from the 11-point loss to Cincinnati.
The Red Storm (11-8, 2-5 Big East) snapped a four-game losing streak, their longest this season. Rutgers (9-11, 0-7) remained one of three winless teams in Big East play.
“We’re not going to shy away from it,” Rutgers guard Anthony Farmer said of the Scarlet Knights’ woes. “It is what it is. We haven’t won a game in the Big East yet. We’re still searching. We’re still playing hard. We’re still fighting. We’re not going to give up. But there’s definitely a sense of urgency.”
No one understands urgency like Kennedy. The Red Storm was leading Cincy on Wednesday when he was ejected for jawing with Bearcats forward Rashad Bishop, who also was tossed.
Cincinnati used the ejections as motivation. St. John’s allowed the ejections to crush their spirit.
So Kennedy, who apologized to his teammates after the game, did so again at practice on Friday. Then he went out and scored 16 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out six assists, rejected two shots and made one steal.
“He’s one of our leaders,” Horne said of Kennedy. “He made a promise to us and he fulfilled his role. He did what we asked him to do.”
Actually it was Kennedy who asked for more. With sophomore point guard Malik Boothe (thumb) still out, the Red Storm has been forced two play freshmen Quincy Roberts and Ty Edmondson at the point. Roberts (four turnovers) is hampered by a strained muscle in his shin, so Kennedy asked his coach to let him run the point.
“Coach has confidence in me, too,” said Kennedy. “I just have to remind him sometimes.”
The performances of Horne, Kennedy and Justin Burrell (nine points, eight boards, a big blocked shot down the stretch), all sophomores, shows St. John’s fans this team has a future. That future was almost obscured by tombstones after the Cincinnati collapse.
“We have good players,” Norm Roberts said. “We have tough players. The Cincinnati loss was tough but these [guys] aren’t going to lay [down] for anyone.”
St. John’s 70 Rutgers 59
