St. John’s Gives Up 14-Points Lead, Loses in Overtime to Marquette 72-70

Mar 9, 2023 - 7:46 PM

After St. John’s gave away a double-digit lead to open the second half, the Johnnies lost in a dogfight in overtime, 72-70, and their season is quite possibly over.

After the Red Storm nearly stole the game late at Marquette on Saturday, the Johnnies made their move much earlier in this one.

Marquette’s defensive strategy appeared to be don’t let Joel Soriano win this game. Offensively, Soriano struggled to get the ball, and when he did get it he tried to do too much with it. As such, the big man finished the half with only 1 points (0-2 FG), 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 turnovers. While a quiet offensive half might have dampened Soriano’s defensive production during the regular season, today, he was engaged on that end of the floor from the tip and had 2 blocks to show for it.

The lead stayed tight for the first 10 minutes or so before David Jones and Kolby King catapulted their team to a double-digit lead. The duo lead the Johnnies to a 16-0 run, of which the duo scored 14 with King scoring 8 straight points.

David Jones finished the half with 12 points (5-13 FG, 1-3 3PT), 7 rebounds, and 2 assists, while Kolby King added 8 points (3-3 FG, 2-2 3PT) and 2 rebounds.

As a result of Jones’s and King’s efforts, the Red Storm amassed a 14 point lead with less than 3 minutes to play.

The strong offensive product also sparked things defensively in the halfcourt. The Red Storm’s defensive rotations were better than they have been for most of the season, and as a result, Marquette shot an uninspiring 4 of 19 (21%) from deep.

At the half, St. John’s led Marquette, 36-26.

Five minutes into the second half, the Johnnies lost the double-digit lead they had built. Marquette opened the half on a 9-0 to swift destroy all the Johnnies had built.

After a quiet first half, Joel Soriano did all he could to give St. John’s a chance to win. Soriano scored the Red Storm’s first 8 points of the half and for a stretch singlehandedly kept the Johnnies within a bucket of the Golden Eagles.

The issue was that Marquette responded with another bogger run of 10-0, 7 points of which came from Big East Player of the Year Tyler Kolek. who, up to that point, had a quiet game.

Dylan Addae-Wusu picked up the mantle late in the half, scoring the Red Storm’s next 9 points to help St. John’s go back up by a point.

In the final minute of the game, quickly added 5 points on a three and a layup by Oso Ighodaro and Kam Jones, respectively. AJ Storr responded by getting fouled on a shot from deep and knocking down all three free throws to cut the Marquette lead to 1.

Olivie-Maxence Prosper hit a free throw to put Marquette back up 2, when Addae-Wusu got to the rim for a clutch layup to tie the game up with under 5 seconds to play. Prosper nearly tipped a ball in at the buzzer, but the ball was on his fingertips when the lights turned red meaning the game was going to overtime tied up at 61-61.

Kam Jones’s layup gave Marquette an early lead, and both teams proceeded to trade buckets for the next 4 minutes with Marquette maintaining a small lead.

With the Golden Eagles up 2, AJ Storr missed a three leading to an offensive rebound by St. John’s. Posh Alexander missed a game-winning three, and St. John’s lost in overtime, 72-70.

St. John’s Red Storm

Dylan Addae-Wusu: 16 points (6-11 FG, 2-5 3PT), 5 rebounds, 1 assist

David Jones: 16 points (5-22 FG, 1-5 3PT), 11 rebounds, 2 assists

Joel Soriano: 12 points (2-8 FG), 12 rebounds, 2 assists

Marquette Golden Eagles

Tyler Kolek: 19 points (6-18 FG, 1-5 3PT), 9 rebounds, 6 assists

Olivie-Maxence Prosper: 16 points (7-11 FG, 1-4 3PT), 4 rebounds