St. John’s had a golden opportunity last night against Villanova, a chance to climb over the struggling Wildcats and take control of own Big East destiny.

But in arguably their biggest game of the season, the Red Storm came up small, losing a 60-42 humiliation at the Garden.

With a chance to leapfrog Villanova into 12th in the Big East standings (only a dozen teams qualify for the Big East tournament) Justin Burrell scored the game’s first basket for St. John’s and then the Red Storm watched the Wildcats answer with a 16-0 run.

After that, there was no drama, no contest.

“We got stagnant offensively, didn’t attack the way we needed to,” said St. John’s coach Norm Roberts. “We got nervous and took some ill-advised shots. We became very young, became frustrated. Then we had guys shooting ill-advised shots, trying to make plays that weren’t there.”

Leading scorer Anthony Mason Jr. returned after missing three games with a left-ankle contusion, and scoring 12 points and grabbing nine rebounds.

The Johnnies held Villanova’s leading scorer, Scottie Reynolds, to six points – far short of his team-leading 17.1 average. But they shot so poorly (25.5 percent for the second straight game) that it didn’t matter.

“We came out a little overanxious to make plays for each other,” Mason said. “We went over the edge a little, overanxious.”

Villanova had lost six of its last seven, including a gut-wrenching 55-53 defeat Monday to Georgetown when Corey Stokes was whistled for a foul 75 feet from the basket with one-tenth of a second to play. Last night, Stokes, a freshman from St. Benedict’s Prep (N.J.), had a team-high 13.

“They seemed down in practice and I was concerned, but they came to play,” said coach Jay Wright, whose Wildcats (15-9) pulled into a three-way tie for 10th with DePaul and Seton Hall at 5-7.

The Red Storm (10-14) stayed tied with Providence at 4-9, 1½ games out. That leaves them five league games to make up that deficit, or face the reality of a fourth Big East tourney in five years played in the Garden without them in it.

Mason – who averages a team-leading 13.5 ppg – checked in 5:37 into the game, getting tied up and turning over the ball the first time he touched it.

It typified the night. Stokes drilled a straight-on 3-pointer to put the Wildcats up 16-2. The Red Storm had missed nine of their first 10 shots and committed five turnovers by the time Paris Horne broke the drought.

With little motion and a stagnant offense, it was in many ways a continuation of the last half they’d played, when they fell apart in the second half against Cincinnati, outscored 37-23 and shooting 7-for-25. They outdid that last night, outscored 31-13 by halftime on 5-of-24 from the floor.

With recruits in the stands, this was the lowest-scoring half of the season, worse than the 14-point first half against Georgetown in their last Garden appearance. D.J. Kennedy – one of four freshman starters – went scoreless, perhaps hindered by a back injury suffered in shootaround.

Still, Reynolds hobbled off with 13:57 left and ‘Nova up 37-23, but St. John’s did little to take advantage.

brian.lewis@nypost.com