Marquette
guard converted a three-point play and the Red Storm went into the locker room with a 46-31 advantage.
MU came out for the second half like a completely different team. The Golden Eagles scored on nine straight trips down the court and drew even at 51-51 on a three-pointer from senior forward Jamal Cain with 14:46 remaining.
That head-spinning inconsistency has been the only consistent thing about MU this season.
“Our guys battled like crazy in the second half,” MU head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “In the first half, I thought St. John’s brought the fight to us. There’s no question about that.
“We responded to it. But in Big East games, you can’t dig yourself the hole that we did.”
It didn’t help that the Golden Eagles were without freshman forward Justin Lewis, who hurt his ankle in practice.
“The timetable is unsure,” Wojciechowski said. “Ankle injuries are tricky, so we don’t know how long he will be out. But certainly we hope he’s back sooner rather than later.”
Lewis, who is averaging 8.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, is MU’s most important player off the bench. Without him, the perilously thin Golden Eagles didn’t get a single point from their reserves. Elliott, sophomore guard Symir Torrence and freshman guard Dexter Akanno combined to take just one shot.
Looking like it was losing steam after the comeback, MU let St. John’s take control again at 63-53 with 10 minutes remaining.
But the Golden Eagles didn’t fade away thanks to tough inside play from senior center Theo John (16 points and eight rebounds) and freshman forward Dawson Garcia (20 points and nine rebounds). Sophomore guard D.J. Carton also started attacking after a lackluster first half, scoring 10 of his 12 points after halftime.
“We definitely want to get the ball to Theo or Dawson or Justin when he’s healthy,” Wojciechowski said. “And play off those guys. I thought Theo and Dawson did a really good job tonight.”
MU just could never grab the lead. After Cain threw down an alley-oop to bring MU within 69-68 with 3:08 on the clock, MU senior guard Koby McEwen missed a jumper and Carton had the ball poked away by Alexander for a layup. The Red Storm’s pesky point guard finished with six steals.
The Golden Eagles still had chances in the final seconds. Garcia tipped in a rebound to cut the deficit to 75-73 with 12 seconds on the clock, then Champagnie was whistled for traveling after receiving the inbound pass.
McEwen couldn’t convert on a tough layup with 3 seconds remaining, but St. John’s tipped the ball out of bounds. With .4 seconds remaining, MU had enough time for a quick shot, but Carton’s inbound pass was stolen.
“Obviously I wish we would have had another timeout in that situation, which we didn’t,” Wojciechowski said. “But we have to be able to pass and catch from out-of-bounds to inbounds and we didn’t do that on that last possession.”
More frustration in a season full of it.