St. John's put up a lackluster and stagnant offensive performance as their Big East woes continued with a 66-60 loss to Seton Hall at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
With a barrage of missed layups, wasted possessions, and a combined 10-for-49 from the field between Posh Alexander, Dylan Wusu, Julian Champagnie, and Montez Mathis, St. John's offensive ineptitude was the factor which derailed them.
The Red Storm have now lost four out of their last five since a conference opening win over DePaul.
Seton Hall's bulldozing 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward Alexis Yetna collected his third double-double in four games, gashing SJU to the tune of 16 points and 15 rebounds.
The France native and transfer by way of South Florida shot 6-for-12 from the floor. With Pirates guards Jared Rhoden (2-for-11) and Kadary Richmond (3-for-19) struggling mightily shooting the ball, Myles Cale turned in a 21-point and nine board performance to lead SHU.
While the Red Storm shot a putrid 22-for-75 from the field, Seton Hall was not much more efficient at just 23-for-68.
The Pirates gained momentum with a quick-strike 8-2 run that culminated with Yetna's putback bucket that gave them a 54-46 lead with 6:55 remaining in the second half.
St. John's answered as Aaron Wheeler (13 points, seven rebounds) netted a 3-pointer that cut it to 54-49.
Cale then got free on the perimeter and stuck a 3-pointer which pushed the lead back to 57-49.
St. John's 6-foot-11 Joel Soriano, a product of Stepinac HS, had one of his best performances of the season as he tore down 14 rebounds.
Though he scored a season-low nine points during an irregular 3-for-14 shooting performance, Champagnie attained a milestone with his 500th career rebound.
Seton Hall came out of the second half gates sizzling, rattling off an 11-2 run that was capped off by a Cale jumper with 16:33 remaining, seizing a 39-32 lead. St. John's thwarted the run with a 3-pointer by Mathis.
St. John's again fell behind as Seton Hall featured Yetna inside.
With back-to-back layups from Wheeler and Wusu, followed by a 3-pointer from Champagnie, St. John's was able to cut the deficit to two, 46-44, with 11:02 remaining in the half.
One of the more intriguing subplots of the matchup was the renewed hostilities between the two teams. Both coaching staffs are not very fond of each other.
The animosity between the two staffs heightened this past fall, when top-shelf Our Savior Lutheran guard Jaquan Sanders reneged on his commitment to St. John's, only to commit to Seton Hall a few weeks later.
St. John's (10-7, 2-4 Big East) will look to avenge this loss on Monday, as they play at Seton Hall in a back-to-back. The road from there doesn't get much easier, as they face no.11 Villanova and then UConn.
