NOT QUITE ENOUGH
Late rally can’t lift St. John’s past Marquette at MSG
Oso Ighodaro scored 17 points, Tyler Kolek had 15 points and 11 assists, and No. 17 Marquette held off a furious St. John’s rally for a 73-72 victory Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
After trailing by 13 with six minutes left, the Red Storm took advantage of turnovers and some rare missed free throws by Kolek down the stretch to give themselves a chance for a stirring comeback win.
Daniss Jenkins, however, missed a free throw that would have tied it with 38.9 seconds remaining, and Chris Ledlum was off target on an open 3-pointer with 10 seconds to go.
But then Kolek, a 94% free-throw shooter coming into the game, missed his third consecutive foul shot. Jenkins had an opportunity to win it for St. John’s, but his 3 at the buzzer bounced off the rim.
Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino was back on the St. John’s sideline following a bout with COVID-19. The 71-year-old Pitino missed Tuesday night’s blowout loss at Seton Hall, then returned to practice this week.
But the Red Storm were still minus senior guard Jordan Dingle, the team’s third-leading scorer at 10.5 points per game, because of illness. And three assistant coaches also were unavailable: Ricky Johns, Van Macon and Taliek Brown.
David Joplin had 13 points and Stevie Mitchell scored 12 for the Golden Eagles (13-5, 4-3), who missed their first 11 attempts from 3-point range and trailed by 10 late in the first half.
RJ Luis Jr. scored a season-high 20 for the Red Storm (12-7, 4-4), who dropped their third straight game — two by one point against ranked opponents.
Joplin drained Marquette’s first 3 to begin the second half and hit another one to snap a 56-all tie with 10:27 remaining. That started a 10-0 run for the Golden Eagles, and another 3 by Joplin gave them their largest lead at 71-58 with 6:20 left.
Marquette next plays Wednesday night at last-place DePaul, the second game in a stretch featuring four of five on the road.
St. John’s will host Villanova on Wednesday night at MSG, looking to sweep the regular-season series.