By BRENDAN McGAIR
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – It’s official: St. John’s is among the Big East living.
Desperation translated into sweet success for seniors D’Angelo Harrison and Phil Greene IV and the rest of the Red Storm in an 83-70 win over a Providence club that entered Wednesday tied for first place in the Big East. St. John’s rode a torrid performance from three-point territory – 10-of-17 – to grab its first league win after beginning conference play with three straight losses.
“It was do or die for us,” said Greene. “We didn’t want to dig ourselves an 0-4 hole.”
Added Harrison, “You have that mindset that you don’t want to lose.”
Harrison and Greene each finished with 20 points and combined to swish nine of St. John’s 10 treys. The performance turned in certainly raised some eyebrows as the Red Storm entered Wednesday dead last in the Big East in three-point field goal percentage and averaged five makes per outing.
Coach Steve Lavin quickly pointed out that defense, not finding a rhythm with the shooting stroke, was the point of emphasis during the eight-day layoff leading up to its trek to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, a building where St. John’s won at last season. He also noted that as much as it’s a sigh of relief to finally nail down conference victory No. 1, there’s not much time to enjoy it. The Red Storm will fly to Chicago for a Sunday afternoon matchup against DePaul, who like Providence is 3-2 in the Big East.
In the first half, the Red Storm put on a clinic on deep-range execution, connecting on 8-of-13 attempts from beyond the arc. Greene (four treys) and Harrison (three) highlighted the barrage as the Johnnies were able flourish despite their lone true post presence – Chris Obekpa – sitting out the final 15:07 after picking up his second foul.
The Red Storm continued to remain well in command at the onset of the second half, going up as many as 17 points after enjoying a 42-30 advantage at halftime. PC did make a run to cut to 51-48 with just over 10 minutes remaining, but Harrison and Greene rediscovered their shooting touch and propelled the Johnnies to a double-digit lead with six minutes left.
“All of our guys were tied together and we executed down the stretch,” said Harrison.
“[The Dunk] is a great place to play and a great place to win as well,” said Greene.
St. John’s shot 50.9 percent for the game and won despite being manhandled on the backboards, 44-29. On the flip side, Providence shot just 39.7-percent from the field. The Red Storm are now 12-4 on the season.
“Overall we played a cohesive and complete game,” said Lavin.
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