There were blemishes in the St. John’s basketball performance.
A handful of things to clean up.
But when it mattered most, the Johnnies were able to get it done on a Sunday afternoon inside Madison Square Garden against Richard Pitino and New Mexico, 85-71.
Things could not have started much better for the No. 22 Red Storm (4-0) after building a 16-point first half lead, 40-24, in the final seconds but that is when the Lobos started to apply pressure, scoring the final five points of the half.
It continued into the second half when New Mexico (3-1) cut its deficit to four, 63-59, with 8:01 left and had the makings of a St. John’s let down before Aaron Scott drilled a 3-pointer in front of the Red Storm bench that ignited a 9-2 run.
“Stay composed,” Scott explained about the mentality of himself and the team during the Lobos run.
“Confidence is key…I wasn’t hitting [from 3-point range], but confidence is key. My teammates and my coaches give me a lot of confidence.”
The lead remained at a comfortable margin for the rest of the game, which was closed out by a Kadary Richmond and-one with 1:08 left.
“Who’s Your Daddy?” chants rained down from the 12,310 faithful at The Garden, which brought a smile to Richard Pitino’s face as Rick Pitino motioned to the crowd to quiet down.
“As a New York Yankee fan, all I could think of was Pedro Martinez,” Richard Pitino said about the chants.
“Other than that, I laughed it off. This is what our obnoxious New York fans do and I’m a part of it.”
The days of hype leading up to the matchup between father and son saw the conversation exiting the game surrounding RJ Luis, who turned in his best performance in a St. John’s uniform with 21 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists as every member of the Red Storm starting five scored at least 13 points.
Zuby Ejiofor, who averaged 7.0 points and 3.0 rebounds through the first three games of the season, went for 13 points and 10 rebounds while the backcourt duo of Devion Smith and Richmond combined for 29 points on 14-of-27 shooting.
The victory was just a small step for St. John’s with its first elite matchup of the season on Thursday (7:00 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network) at the Baha Mar Hoops Challenge against No. 12 Baylor.
