After weeks of dominance on the hard court, the Red Storm lost what should have been an easy layup – snapping their six-game winning streak in a defeat to Seton Hall, 84-70 on Thursday, March 3.
The Johnnies were held without a field goal in the final 5:55 of regulation, while Seton Hall drained 12 three-pointers and shot 64.3 percent from the floor.
Dwight Hardy led St. John’s (19-10, 11-6) with 23 points, while Justin Brownlee chipped in 12 points and seven rebounds. D.J. Kennedy added 11 points for the Johnnies, while Seton Hall (12-17, 6-11) was led by Jeremy Hazell – who led all scorers with 31 points.
Fuquan Edwin added a career-best 19 points and was 5-for-6 from three for the Pirates, who shot 66.7 percent (12-for-18) from 3-point land. Entering the game, Seton Hall was shooting just 28.4 percent from long range for the season.
The Red Storm opened the game with a strong 7-0 run, but the Pirates quickly tied the score and eventually took the lead. Seton Hall made seven three-pointers in the first half to take a 34-30 lead at halftime.
“They did a nice job of spacing and they moved the ball very well and were able to find shooters,” said head coach Steve Lavin. “That’s as remarkable of a shooting performance from any team I’ve faced in my career.”
The game ended on a contentious note, as Lavin was ejected after getting two technicals with 1:55 left in the game. Justin Burrell was ejected after being called for a flagrant foul with 7.6 seconds to play. Luckily, the ejections do not carry over to the next game, the regular season finale against USF.
St. John’s concludes the regular season with senior night on Saturday, March 5 at Carnesecca Arena.
