If Chris Mullin can return the St. John’s program to its glory years or at least repeated appearances in the NCAA Tournament, this season largely will be forgotten once the winning begins.
Only those who have endured this baptism under fire might someday take some solace in laying a foundation for better things to come. A 90-76 loss to Providence on Saturday afternoon at the Garden in their regular-season finale left the Johnnies with an 8-23 record overall and 1-17 in the Big East, bringing Senior Day to a humbling conclusion.
“This game meant a lot,” said Durand Johnson, who led St. John’s with 15 points and, along with Ron Mvouika and Felix Balamou, played their final regular-season game.
“We’ve been through so much adversity on and off the court, this night was special and it was important. But give Providence credit. They came out and they executed.”
Sophomore forward Jalen Lindsey made his first seven field goals on his way to a game- high 30 points, while sophomore forward Ben Bentil, the Big East’s leading scorer, added 23 as the Friars raced to a 49-26 lead at halftime and never were threatened.
St. John’s suffered from its usual ailments of sloppy turnovers, lapses in hustle, poor shooting and an aversion to making free throws. The Red Storm missed their first eight attempts from the free-throw line before finishing south of 50 percent, making 8 of 17.
St. John’s started the game focused on containing Bentil and junior guard Kris Dunn, who entered the game averaging 21.1 and 16.4 points per game. But the Johnnies got burned by Lindsey, who had averaged just 6.4 points per game on the season.
“We left shooters open,” St. John’s junior forward Christian Jones said. “Good players knock down shots and once you get hot it’s hard to stop that person from getting rolling, and it was hard for us to get back in our flow.”
An optimist might have suggested Senior Day would offer an emotional lift from the Garden crowd. But St. John’s seemed flat from the start, as the Friars were determined to improve to 22-9 overall and 10-8 in the Big East. The victory clinched the most overall wins for Providence since 1977-78 and a No. 4 seed in the upcoming Big East Tournament.
The Red Storm will be the 10th seed, playing Wednesday night at 9:30 against No. 7 seed Marquette. It will offer one last chance for a positive highlight on an otherwise difficult season for a senior class with little to show for its effort.
“The whole season has been pretty tough,” Mullin said. “Obviously, losing is not fun. But those three guys, they really helped not only myself, but the other players stay somewhat grounded and focused on their daily approach. I’m thankful for them for that. I just wish we could’ve had a better season.”
The daily approach while winning just one of their past 21 has been to show up, work hard and try to get better.
“Regardless of how many losses we had this year,” Johnson said, “I felt the younger guys and the freshman learned from us older guys how to never give up, how to come every day to work and compete regardless. We had 23 losses. I’ve never been a part of anything like that. It’s a first for me. But I’m not the type to back down or quit. I think we led in the right direction so younger guys next season will know how what it takes and how important every game is.”
