STORM HAVE SIXTH SENSE
The magic number, in all probability, is six.
If St. John’s wins six Big East games, it can almost assure itself of its first trip to the league tournament since 2003. No Big East team that won six league games last season failed to get to the Garden.
The Red Storm got its fifth conference win last night when it held off South Florida 66-62 in Carnesecca Arena, providing optimism the Red Storm will play in postseason and pessimism they’re not ready for it.
St. John’s (14-10 overall, 5-6 in the league) looked as good as it has in coach Norm Roberts’ two-plus seasons, building a 40-19 halftime lead. Then the Red Storm froze like a fire hydrant in winter and frittered away all but two of that 21-point halftime lead.
“You know, we haven’t been up 21 points in a Big East game, we haven’t,” Roberts said. “And we didn’t respond as well as I would have liked to, but we did respond great at the end because they could have folded. They could have folded and let it happen.”
If St. John’s had folded it would have been the worst loss in the Roberts era. The Bulls (12-12, 3-7) haven’t won a league road game since joining the Big East last season, and they aided St. John’s with 11 first-half turnovers.
Then St. John’s came to a crashing halt as the Bulls, led by Kentrell Gransberry (19 rebounds), crashed the glass in the second half. The Bulls got within 51-49 with just under eight minutes remaining, causing the crowd in Carnesecca Arena to hyperventilate.
“I would have liked the opportunity to go up one,” said South Florida coach Robert McCullum, “to see how they responded.”
In the past St. John’s, which moved into ninth place in the league standings, would have responded by choking up this game. But players such as Anthony Mason Jr., playing despite a hairline fracture in the middle finger of his left hand, put in a big offensive rebound.
After Eugene Lawrence missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 53 seconds left and Chris Howard drained a 3 from the corner, with 36.9 seconds left, it once again was a two-point game at 61-59.
Avery Patterson and Mason converted both ends of 1-and-1’s to stretch it to 65-59, but Howard drained another 3 with 11.6 seconds left to make it 65-62. Not until Patterson made the second of two free throws with 9.2 seconds left was the Red Storm’s fifth league win in the books.
“It’s a big win,” said Roberts. “It gets us one step closer to our goal.”
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Look for St. John’s to face Marist and defending champ Hofstra to play Virginia Tech in the first-round games of next season’s Holiday Festival in the Garden, The Post has learned. … Hamilton injured his left hand and will be evaluated. … Ricky Torres added nothing in four minutes and continues to play his way out of minutes.
