SJU GOES DOWN SWINGIN’
Storm rally falls short vs. Seton Hall & players tussle after game
ST. JOHN’S lost, but they showed some fight — in every possible sense.
The Johnnies rallied from a 19-point deficit before falling to Seton Hall 62-61 at the Garden on Sunday before a heated game boiled over following the postgame handshake line.
Big East Player of the Year candidate Isaiah Whitehead and Seton Hall’s Ismael Sanogo had to be separated from St. John’s players Ron Mvouika and Christian Jones near center court after the game.
Seton Hall’s Derrick Gordon, who made news as the first Division 1 basketball player to announce he is gay last year at UMass, also had to be restrained and escorted off the court by what appeared to be a Pirates assistant coach.
“Two teams t hat battled and played very hard. I don’t... There was nothing to it. Sometimes that happens,” said Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard to reporters following the game. “I think that’s why in the NBA both teams just walk to the locker rooms. Sometimes the handshake line isn’t the greatest idea.”
“It’s just like, you know, Big East rivalry.... I guess there was a little scuffle, but nothing special. Tough game. Everyone wants to win, obviously,” said Red Storm senior guard Felix Balamou of the post-game incident. Balamou also had a monster dunk over Seton Hall’s Rashed Anthony for a three-point play that helped spark the Storm’s comeback.
The Red Storm had a chance to win with 2.6 seconds to play and trailing by one, but center Yankuba Sima lost the ball in the paint as the buzzer sounded, sending St. John’s to its 20th loss (8-20, 1-14 Big East). Seton Hall (19-7, 9-5) won for the sixth time in its last seven games.
Freshman Kassoum Yakwe posted 16 points and 15 rebounds — both career highs — for Chris Mullin’s Johnnies, who recently snapped a school-worst 16-game losing streak against DePaul and were looking to make it two in a row.
Whitehead, a Brooklyn product from Lincoln High School who spurned St. John’s to play for the Pirates, was just 1 for 12 from the field and 0 for 5 from threepoint land. He was, however, 8 of 10 from the free throw line, including two clutch freebies with 5.6 seconds left to give Seton Hall the lead for good.