St. John’s Takes No. 10/12 Xavier to the Wire
QUEENS, N.Y. (Jan. 6, 2016) – St. John’s made a furious rally back from a 12-point deficit with 6:43 left, trimming the margin to one, but No. 10/12 Xavier managed to escape with a 74-66 victory on Wednesday at Carnesecca Arena.
The Red Storm had the nationally-ranked Musketeers on the ropes with two minutes to play after freshman guard Federico Mussini (Reggio Emilia, Italy) drained his fifth 3-pointer of the contest to make it a 65-64 ballgame. On the ensuing possession, Xavier drew a foul and then a technical foul after the whistle putting the Musketeers on the line to convert three of the four attempts. The Musketeers kept St. John’s at bay, going 4-for-4 at the line in the last 40 seconds.
“[Xavier] had a pretty good lead, but we battled and competed. We didn’t give up,” said St. John’s head coach Chris Mullin. “I’m really proud of my guys tonight.
“I thought they played well enough to win, not statistically, but as far as effort, energy and desire.”
Mussini hit four of his triples in the final six minutes and finished 5-of-8 from long range as part of a 19-point effort to lead St. John’s (7-9, 0-3). Ron Mvouika (Paris, France) added a season-high 19 points, while Durand Johnson (Baltimore, Md.) contributed 12 points.
Myles Davis scored a team-high 19 points to pace Xavier (14-1, 2-1) and Trevon Bluiett added 18. Jalen Reynolds had a 10-point, 13-rebound double-double for the Musketeers, who shot 48.0 percent (24-of-50) from the floor and 22-of-29 (75.9 percent) from the free throw line.
St. John’s had already cut a 12-point deficit in half with 9:56 to play before Xavier promptly pushed its lead back to 12, 58-46, with 6:43 remaining in regulation. Mussini answered with 12 points to lead St. John’s on an 18-7 run that energized the 4,168 fans at Carnesecca Arena and got the Red Storm one defensive stop away from an opportunity to take its first lead of the game. He jumpstarted the run with a 3-pointer before a Mvouika jumper and another Mussini trey quickly made it a six-point game.
Davis answered with a 3 at the other end, but Christian Jones (Arlington, Texas) responded with a layup and Mussini drained a third 3-pointer. Xavier was still up by four points before Mussini converted again from long range to pull the Red Storm to within one. The Musketeers, however, closed out the game by hitting 7-of-8 free-throws and outscoring the Red Storm 9-2 to snap St. John’s two-game win streak in the series.
St. John’s trailed by as many as 15 points midway through the first half before 3s from Mvouika and Mussini helped key a 10-2 run that trimmed the deficit to seven. Mvouika made another trey and added a jumper to cut the lead to five, and the Musketeers led by seven at the break.
“There has been tremendous improvement across the board,” said Mullin. “We’re not here to get a workout, we’re here to win. We practice hard to set that standard of work ethic and accountability. I let these guys know how much they are improving.
”We’re light years ahead of where we were a month ago.”
St. John’s returns to action on Saturday, traveling to Marquette for a 2 p.m. game