LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The shots weren’t falling. The fouls were piling up. The deficit had reached double figures.
Everything was pointing towards certain defeat.
“That’s a game we never win last year,” St. John’s coach Chris Mullin said. “No way.”
Last year, though, is just that — last year. St. John’s showed it’s a different team on Thanksgiving, not just by finding a way to knock off Oregon State, 82-77, in the opening round of the AdvoCare Invitational at HP Field House, but by not letting those ominous signs deter them.
The Red Storm’s effort didn’t wane. They worked for good shots. Their defense tightened. And the result was the best win of the young season, a rousing come-from-behind victory to move into the semifinals of this holiday tournament Friday, when they will meet Missouri at 11 a.m.
After two years of losing, two years of playing the sacrificial lamb in holiday tournaments, St. John’s came to Orlando believing it could leave with a title. And after this impressive victory, which moved the Johnnies to 5-0 for the first time since 2009-10, that confidence is only building.
“This is major for us. This is a big win for us,” Shamorie Ponds said after St. John’s prevailed despite shooting just 38 percent from the field, mitigated by committing just six turnovers and forcing 21. “I believe last year we wouldn’t have pulled a game out like this, we wouldn’t have fought like we fought at the end. This is a big step to what we want to accomplish.”
Ponds was a perfect example of the resilience St. John’s displayed, shaking off an off performance and foul trouble to close out the Beavers, scoring 11 of his game-high 26 points in the final 5:44. His left-corner fadeaway jumper iced it, pushing the lead to six with 33 seconds to go.
Ponds, a perfect 15-for-15 from the free-throw line, and Marcus LoVett (18 points) spearheaded a furious 22-5 run over a span of 7:15 late in the second half, turning a 10-point deficit into a seven-point lead, the duo scoring 12 of the Red Storm’s points in that span.
“They’re certainly a tough group,” Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said of St. John’s, which had 14 steals. “Their perimeter players, those guards can hawk you defensively and are really good at getting to the rim.”
Junior Kassoum Yakwe enjoyed arguably his best game since his freshman year, giving Mullin big minutes against the large Oregon State front line, notching eight points and five rebounds. His monster follow slam of a LoVett miss with 4:14 left gave the Johnnies the lead for good. Marvin Clark II followed with a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired and LoVett added two free throws to cap the stirring run.
Until that stretch, St. John’s was on the ropes against the PAC-12 school, down 62-52 with 9:32 left, struggling to contain the duo of Tres Tinkle and Stephen Thompson Jr. Justin Simon and Bashir Ahmed had four fouls apiece, and St. John’s was over the limit.
“I kept telling them in the huddle just to hang in there, don’t let the lack of shot-making discourage your energy and your defensive effort,” Mullin said.
A year ago, they likely would’ve folded. But those experiences of being unable to finish seemed to toughen them, and the additions of transfers Simon and Clark have already given St. John’s leadership that was previously lacking. Over the final 9:32, Mullin’s team found a gear it simply didn’t have last year. It held Oregon State (2-2) to four made field goals, two of them coming in the final five seconds, after the result was well in hand.
“At some point in the game, there’s a point you can separate or come together,” Mullin said, “and they came together, got it done.”