St. John’s escapes West Virginia with win in ugly Big East-Big 12 Battle

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — This wasn’t a Picasso.

It wasn’t a performance Rick Pitino or his players will necessarily remember fondly. 

There were mistakes at both ends of the floor, most notably St. John’s failure to adjust to the tight whistle of the officials, sending West Virginia to the free-throw line a whopping 43 times. 

Ultimately, though, the Johnnies left WVU Coliseum with a smile on their faces, winning a game that felt tenuous for much of the night.

Surviving despite two key players — Daniss Jenkins and Chris Ledlum — fouling out and not having another instrumental piece, RJ Luis Jr., who will miss a month due to shin splints. 

“They played Virginia to the wire on an neutral court. This is a tough place to play,” Pitino said after St. John’s won its road opener, 79-73, over West Virginia on Friday night. “We’re coming away with a six-point victory — it’s a great victory. I thought this was a great win. We did a tremendous job of executing down the stretch.” 

This win was about survival.

Playing large stretches without Jenkins, Ledlum and star center Joel Soriano.

Watching the Mountaineers’ parade to the free-throw line. Struggling from long range (7 of 27).

But with the game in the balance, after a nine-point lead was sliced to two in the final minutes, St. John’s (5-2) made winning plays. 

Glenn Taylor Jr., who will now remain a starter as long as Luis is sidelined, figured prominently.

He tipped an offensive rebound to Nahiem Alleyne to extend the lead to four with 1:33 left, then scored inside on the following possession.

With 20 seconds remaining, Alleyne iced the game with a 3-pointer — sending St. John’s to its fourth win in five games since that ugly blowout loss at the Garden to Michigan. 

“All road wins are big wins for us,” Alleyne said. “Especially batting adversity. Adversity today was foul trouble, and I felt like we did a good job of just handling it, not getting too carried away with it and just kept playing defense, kept our composure and we came out with the win.” 

This was St. John’s first non-conference road win over a high-major opponent since beating Rutgers in 2018. 

Soriano was the best player on the floor, outplaying Mountaineers standout Jesse Edwards.

Soriano, despite a badly chipped front tooth, poured in 24 points to go along with nine rebounds and three blocks.

Chris Ledlum, just getting over an illness, added 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Alleyne had 14 off the bench.

Quinn Slazinski, Pitino’s former player at Iona, had 19 points for West Virginia (3-4). 

Of Alleyne’s 14 points, 12 came in the second half.

Pitino needed another shooter on the floor when West Virginia went to a zone, and Alleyne came through.

The guard also notched four rebounds, an area of his game Pitino has said needs improvement. 

“It’s a zone and he’s a smart basketball player,” Pitino said. “Daniss and ‘Na’ are the best defensive basketball players on the team. When you want smart plays, it’s going to be ‘Na’ and Daniss to make the right play. He did down the stretch.” 

Early on this season, St. John’s remains very much a work in progress.

There is one trend that has to be looked at in a positive light: A 3-0 record in games decided by single digits. In the recent past, the Johnnies have notoriously struggled in close games. 

“We took a good step forward today,” Soriano said. “You know how many close games we could’ve won [in the padt], but we didn’t. Our team is built for it. We’ve got a lot of tough guys, guys that want it a lot. I want it a lot.” 

“A lot of things didn’t go our way today,” he added, “but we still stayed together, we still pushed through everything.” 

Pitino said he doesn’t expect Luis to return until the turn of the new year.

The transfer from UMass missed the team’s first five games after fracturing his left hand, returned for last Saturday’s rout of Holy Cross, but is now dealing with shin splints.

He will be reevaluated in two weeks.

Luis has dealt with shin splints in the past and the injury flared up after his debut.