NEW YORK, NY – The ‘Cats traveled to the world’s most famous arena for an embarrassing, 89-57 loss to the Red Storm on Saturday, Feb 28. The defeat puts Villanova (22-7 overall, 13-5 Big East) ranked third in the Big East leading into the final two weeks of the regular season.
“Life happens,” head coach Kevin Willard said. “You get your ass handed to you every once in a while.”
Villanova and St John’s headed into today’s game with the same overall record at 22-6. The ‘Cats previously lost, 86-79, to St John’s at the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Jan 17. Saturday’s game was the largest margin of loss all-time against St. John’s.
Prior to tonight, the Johnnies were coming off a particularly rough loss against No. 6 University of Connecticut (27-3, 17-2 Big East). After only managing two field goals in the second half, St.Johns fell to the Huskies, 72-40, on Wednesday, Feb. 25.
“Seems like God is punishing me for my sins.” Willard said when asked about facing St.John’s following its loss to UConn.
An 11-0 St. John’s run in the first half was broken with a layup by graduate guard Devin Askew at 15:22. Senior forward Duke Brennan led the ‘Cats with 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Askew scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds. Redshirt sophomore Bryce Lindsay scored 10 points as well.
St. John’s managed 29 points off of 18 Villanova turnovers.
The Red Storm shot 53% from the three-point line and made 32-of-61 of total field goals. Villanova failed to match St. John’s accuracy, shooting 7-of-23 from behind the arc and 37% on total field goals. Villanova has not been this challenged since playing Michigan back in early December.
St. John’s extended its lead to a 12-0 run with points up by Mitchell, Jackson and Bryce Hopkins. Dillon Darling had a 5-0 run for the ‘Johnnies in the first four minutes and two dunks by Dillon Mitchell in the first eight minutes. Another 9-0 run over only two minutes in the second half solidified Villanova’s loss.
“They made a lot of shots early,” Willard said. “They shot too many twos. Zuby made a shot early on on their first run and it was a killer.”
Junior guard Tyler Perkins did not score his first points until he scored a three-pointer with 13:48 left in the second half for his only points of the game.
Redshirt freshman forward Matt Hodge was injured two minutes into the second half, with a right leg injury. He needed assistance in the locker room, and did not return for the remainder of the game.
Hodge scored six points before exiting. Willard did not have an update on his status after the game.
“I think losing Matt was a little bit difficult just because emotionally Matty’s such a great kid,” Willard said. “What’s really difficult is that Zuby is so good at reading what you’re trying to do.”
At the half, Villanova was down by 25 points with a score of 48-23. In the first 20 minutes, the ‘Cats shot 25.9% from the field goal, only making 7-of-27 of their shots.
The highest scorer for the Red Storm was Zuby Ejiofor with 16 points along with 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Ejifor is the fourth St. John’s player to record a triple-double in program history.
“We had 26 assists with only eight turnovers against a very good team,” Pitino said. “Villanova is a very good basketball team, and is very well coached as well.”
Willard formerly worked for Pitino for 10 years while at Louisville prior to working for the Boston Celtics together.
“I had a full set of hair when I started working for [Pitino],” said Willard. “As he’s gotten older he has probably become more of a cranky old b*tch than he was when I was there.”
Villanova is scheduled to travel to Chicago, IL, to play DePaul (15-13, 7-10 Big East) on Wednesday, March 4 (8 p.m., Peacock).
