If only they all could be against DePaul.
St. John’s snapped its four-game losing streak with a 78-68 win over the last-place Blue Demons on Monday at Carnesecca Arena, winning for the first time since a New Year’s Day victory over DePaul.
Despite leading-scorer Shamorie Ponds being limited to three points in the first half and fellow star freshman Marcus LoVett finishing with four points — after scoring a game-high 22 points in the previous meeting — the Red Storm (9-11, 3-4 Big East) still led nearly the entire game behind a balanced and selfless attack, led by sophomore Malik Ellison’s career-high 23 points.
Ellison, who entered as the team’s fifth-leading scorer with 7.5 points per game, hit 5-of-6 3-pointers, with Ponds adding 11 second-half points to help St. John’s defeat DePaul for the 13th time in their past 16 meetings.
“It was a great team effort. When your leading scorers, maybe they’re off or whatever the case may be, it’s always good for the other guys to step up and that’s what happened,” Ellison said. “We really needed this one. Coach [Chris Mullin] has been preaching all season — but especially this week — that we need to come into this last game [of the season] at Carnesecca and really bring the energy and the fight, and we did that.”
DePaul (8-11, 1-5) scored the game’s first basket, but its lead would evaporate in 18 seconds and never return. Led by Billy Garrett’s 16 points, the Blue Demons managed to even the score late in the first half despite being held without a 3-pointer for the game’s first 15 minutes, but the Red Storm quickly stole back momentum.
St. John’s closed the half on an 11-0 run, forcing three turnovers in the final four minutes to take a 40-29 lead at the break.
“The last four minutes of the half were huge and I thought it was all about the defense,” Mullin said. “That really helped us. I thought defensively we did a really good job.”
Ponds’ immense talent could only be contained for so long, breaking out with six assists and four 3-pointers to keep DePaul from ever getting within six in the second half. St. John’s hit 12-of-22 3-pointers, assisted on 18 of its 25 field goals and held a 20-2 edge in fast-break points, getting solid bench contributions from Tariq Owens (10 points, nine rebounds) and Federico Mussini (eight points).
For St. John’s, next comes a road game at Seton Hall. Then a trip to Providence. Then a meeting with 22nd-ranked Xavier.
A win won’t come so easy again all season, but winning isn’t supposed to be.
“I’ve been very clear with these guys from Day 1: Don’t disrespect what it takes to become a winner,” Mullin said. “They’ve been good about it. They understand and I think we’re starting to make strides.
“To me, it’s always more important how you handle the losses. The wins are gonna come if you keep doing the right thing, not overreacting to the losses, trying to find out what you can do better, be accountable for it and keep working.”
