By Laura Amato
For the St. John’s women’s basketball team, the hoop just seemed to shrink.
They had never lost a home opener under coach Joe Tartamella, but that changed Nov. 17 as the Red Storm fell 71-65 to Duquesne at Carnesecca Arena. And the squad couldn’t seem to buy a basket down the stretch.
The Red Storm shot a paltry 13.3 percent in the third quarter and, by the final buzzer, shot just 39.4 percent from the floor.
“We were trying to find the right matchups, the right defenses, trying to switch some things around,” Tartamella said. “And you’re trying to still figure out your team a little bit so we’re a work in progress.”
It was a back and forth game early, but the Red Storm seemed to seize a bit of momentum heading into the break, jumping out to a 39-27 lead at halftime. Duquesne was held without a field goal for the final six minutes of the second quarter as seven St. John’s players notched points in the first 20 minutes of play.
“I was really happy with the first half,” Tartamella said. “I thought we played terrific and I thought everybody contributed and did a great job.”
That all changed, however, in the third quarter.
The Dukes switched things up coming out of halftime, hitting their stride offensively and setting St. John’s back on its toes. Duquesne took its first lead, since the early back and forth of the first quarter, with 4:48 left in the third, opening up the half on a 17-to-3 point run.
“We just didn’t execute how we wanted to,” senior point guard Aaliyah Lewis said. “We just didn’t make shots. It was tough for us, but we had to try and continue to keep playing.”
St. John’s simply couldn’t find an answer.
The Red Storm had plenty of looks—some just a few feet from the basket—throughout the third quarter, but couldn’t connect and a handful of whistles made it difficult for the squad to find any kind of second-half rhythm. It also didn’t help that starter Allisha Kebbe left the game early in the half after cramping up.
“She was playing great, that lineup was playing great and the minute she came out, we had a big drop-off,” Tartamella said. “We had to go to our bench and I think we showed some youth.”
Lewis, who finished with a team-high 17 points, did her best to will St. John’s back into the game in the fourth quarter, making it a four-point game with just over six minutes to play, but the Red Storm couldn’t quite get over the late-game hump. Duquesne continued to make its free throws down the stretch—notching 22 points from the line—and out-rebounded the Red Storm 43 to 34.
The squad failed to bounce back Sunday night, falling 60-52 to Miami. It doesn’t get any easier for St. John’s with road tilts at Virginia and Arizona State over Thanksgiving weekend, but games like this can serve as a learning experience and, most importantly, get the Storm ready for a Big East title defense.
“My hope was that we can learn and win along the way,” Tartamella said. “We’ve got a lot of areas we need to work on, but if we can make shots, we’re pretty good.”
