By Dylan Butler
More than anything, the Red Storm needed to win a Big East road game, which they've failed to do in nearly two years. But there would be no celebrating for the Johnnies. Ryan Williams' desperation 3-point attempt from the corner was after the final buzzer and the Red Storm suffered yet another gut-wrenching road loss, falling 57-55 to Seton Hall in front of 9,293 at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey.”Of course it hurts, of course it's frustrating, but you have to take it in stride,” said senior forward Phil Missere. “We know we're getting there and it's all in due time.”St. John's has lost six of its last seven games and nine of its last 11 and several have been close, including a four-point loss at West Virginia followed by the one-point loss at Notre Dame.For a while it looked as if St. John's (8-13, 2-9 Big East) would snap its three-game losing streak and end a stretch of 18 straight road games without a win. Seton Hall went nine minutes without a field goal in the first half and the Red Storm exploded out of the gate, scoring 11 of the first 13 points of the game.But both Lamont Hamilton and Dexter Gray picked up two fouls each in the opening 10 minutes and Roberts was forced to go as deep as he can with his bench, inserting seldom-used Mohamed Diakite and Tyler Jones into the game. Hamilton never got into the flow of the game, finishing with 6 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks in 23 minutes. Gray had 8 points and 4 boards, but missed the front end of two free throws that could have tied the game for the Red Storm with 6.4 seconds left. Gray also went 1-for-2 from the line with 1:43 left and could have given the Johnnies its first lead in nearly four minutes.”It hurt when I missed the free throw, but I just had it in my mind that I had to make the second one,” Gray said. “I let my team down on the first one.”With Hamilton and Gray sitting for huge chucks of the game, Seton Hall (11-10, 3-7) dominated the paint and held a 49-28 edge on the glass. The Pirates, which shot 34 percent from the field, also scored 22 points off of 23 offensive rebounds. St. John's, which had a sizeable edge on the offensive glass in recent games, had just nine offensive rebounds.”We were outrebounding teams three games ago, now we can't outrebound anybody and then we stopped turning it over and then we can't get a rebound again,” St. John's coach Norm Roberts said. “But that's what happens when you have a young team and don't have much depth.”John Allen and Kelly Whitney led Seton Hall with 11 points apiece. J.R. Morris added 10 points off the bench, including a putback with 1:11 left in the game to give the Pirates the lead for good. Jamar Nutter started his first game of the season for Seton Hall and finished with 9 points, including a critical free throw with four seconds remaining in the game. He missed the second free throw and the Storm momentarily froze on the rebound. Eugene Lawrence picked up the ball and raced up the sideline. He pushed the ball ahead to Williams, who was in the corner, but Williams' shot – which bounced off the rim – was after the final buzzer.”I kind of lost track of the time,” Lawrence said. “On the rebound we hesitated and let it drop and that took off about a second and a half so we weren't able to get a shot off.”Daryll Hill had 19 points, 4 assists, 2 steals and no turnovers in 40 minutes, prompting Roberts to call it, “maybe Daryll's best game of the year.” Missere, the walk-on-turned-scholarship player, had a season-high 10 points in 22 solid minutes off the bench and the Johnnies shot better than 40 percent from the field for the first time in four games.Epperson withdraws. Flushing native Rodney Epperson has withdrawn from St. John's, the school announced Monday. Epperson, a junior forward, averaged 14.1 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in seven games for the Red Storm but was suspended indefinitely, missing the last 13 games as the school reviewed his transcripts from Midland Junior College in Texas.Roberts declined to comment when reached on his cell phone Monday.Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
