By Patrick McCormack
National Player of the Year candidate Doug McDermott beat St. John’s University with a three-pointer the first time the Red Storm played Creighton. There would be no repeat performance.
The second time around the Johnnies learned from the past and didn’t allow the nation’s leading scorer to shoot in the final 8:41 of the team’s 70-65 upset victory over the No. 12-ranked Blue Jays in Big East men’s basketball Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.
“They did a great job taking me away,” said McDermott, who had 25 points. “I thought they did a great job of switching whenever I came off screens. They were really disciplined, a lot more down the stretch there, so you got to give them credit.”
D’Angelo Harrison scored 19 points and drilled a deep trey with 2:09 remaining to give St. John’s the lead for good at 65-63 en route to their third straight win and sixth victory out of their last seven games. This, however, was their most impressive win.
“It was one of the [only] open shots I had all night. I buried it,” Harrison said. “The team has a lot of confidence in me. Coach [Steve Lavin] does a good job calling your number and he called mine tonight, and I delivered.”
The Blue Jays (19-4, 9-2) started eight of nine from the field and jumped out to an early 18-11 advantage. The Red Storm (15-9, 5-6) picked up its defense to hold Creighton to just 25 percent shooting the rest of the first half. This allowed the Johnnies’ offense to pick up and take a 40-36 lead going into the second half.
Chris Obekpa added 11 points and six rebounds for St. John’s and Grant Gibbs had 12 points and 11 boards for Creighton. The key to this was limiting McDermott, who was guarded by Jakaar Sampson. Sampson saw the Red Storm’s physical play as key to its victory.
“I feel like we’ve been physical all through this stretch,” Sampson said. “That’s one of our strong points. We want to be physical and let people see our athleticism.”
Lavin, who picked up his 200th career win, said he never gave up on his team despite the 0-5 start in the league. The victory moves St. John’s within two games of third place with seven more games to play, four of which are at home. The Johnnies are also back in the hunt for an NCAA tournament bid.
“This is a group that keeps getting better,” Lavin said. “Coming into the season, I knew we would have our struggles. I didn’t think we would be 0-5. You get a little better each day, and you add that up and you have wins, breakthrough wins like we have had recently.”
None were bigger than this one.
