R ON ARTEST called it the most bitter defeat he has experienced in his brief two seasons at St. John’s. The reasoning was simple. “We could have won.”
Indeed, there was no moral victory in losing 78-74 to top-ranked UConn yesterday afternoon at the sold-out Garden. While it may have been rewarding to take second-ranked Duke to overtime last Sunday before losing, St. John’s shouldn’t be happy with allowing the Huskies to escape with their unbeaten season intact.
The Red Storm, after being down by as many as 13 points early in the first half, were up by 12 with 17:11 left in the game after Reggie Jessie scored off an offensive rebound. But for the remainder of the half and especially in the final six minutes, the Red Storm did a slow melt, turning from men to boys and allowing the more experienced UConn to impose its will down the stretch.
After Artest drained a 3-pointer to put St. John’s ahead 65-61, the Red Storm scored just seven meaningful points the remainder of the game as the Huskies flexed their muscles and showed why they are 19-0 and 11-0 in the Big East. Burned for most of the game by St. John’s ability to grab 21 offensive rebounds, the Huskies stiffened their defense, sealed off their defensive glass and turned up their transition game to win going away.
“Good teams know when it’s winning time,” said UConn point guard Khalid El-Amin. “We just stepped it up.”
Meanwhile, St. John’s (17-5, 8-2) went into vapor lock. Give credit to UConn, whose experience and maturity were evident late in the game when they took advantage of nearly every opportunity St. John’s presented. But the Red Storm were their own worst enemy. They were impatient on offense, forcing tough shots that had little chance of converting, and sluggish on defense, allowing one sequence where the Huskies scored three straight transition baskets to go from being down 65-63 to ahead 69-65.
Artest, an emotional sophomore, was critical of his teammates performance, using the word “choke” to describe their late-game defensive effort. But he was as guilty as anyone. He forced a jump shot with about four minutes left, launched a difficult three that hit the back of the rim with two minutes left, and missed an open layup with a minute to go.
With eight seconds left, he and point-guard Erick Barkley got into a brief shouting match on the court with Barkley ending the exchange by telling Artest to “shut the (bleep) up.”
Where UConn was poised, confident and relentless over the final six minutes. St. John’s was impatient, emotional and indecisive.
“It’s all about playing smart,” said UConn guard Ricky Moore. “You can be down by 20 points. You just have to be smart and make sure you get the shots wanted.”
St. John’s didn’t do that and wound up losing game it should have won. Coach Mike Jarvis tried to paint flowers around the loss, the Red Storm’s second in as many weeks before a sold-out Garden. He reminded everyone how young his team is and that there is plenty of basketball left to be played this season.
“Our day is soon coming,” he said, adding, “it’s all about runs, who will be the last team to make the last run.”
It’s also about not losing your composure, which as Jarvis pointed out, might be more difficult when you’re watching a lead dissolve than when you’re battling from behind.
Up 12 with 17 minutes to play, the Red Storm relaxed just a bit as UConn called a timeout. The Garden was rocking. The momentum belonged to St. John’s. On the other end of the court, UConn coach Jim Calhoun didn’t admonish his team during the break. He didn’t even speak to his players. He just stared at them.
“It’s probably the first time I ever did anything like that,” Calhoun said. “I’ve used a lot of different things in 27 years. But never not talking. I wanted them to think about what they weren’t doing. After a while they started to talk to each other. Obviously, they figured out something.”
Said El-Amin, “We had to pick it up. Coach not talking … it’s like he was questioning our heart.”
Calhoun could do that with a experienced group that went to the Final Eight last season. St. John’s is still learning how to act in big games. It’s nice and wonderful to sell out the Garden for back-to-back games for the first time since 1985. It’s nice to take Duke to overtime and lead the top-ranked team in the country by double digits in the second half. But yesterday’s game can not be considered a step forward. Not when you lose when you not only could have won, but should have won.
