Joel Soriano scores 15 of his 21 points after halftime to power St. John's over Villanova
St. John's Red Storm center Joel Soriano embraces head coach Rick Pitino as he comes out late in the second half of an NCAA Big East men’s basketball game against the Villanova Wildcats at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The drought had gone on long enough. Joel Soriano wasn’t going to let it last one day longer.
The only thing the St. John’s 6-11 center didn’t have Wednesday night was the cape and mask as he put the Red Storm on his back in the second half and carried them to a 70-50 Big East victory before an animated crowd of 12,859 at the Garden to end the Red Storm’s three-game losing streak.
Soriano had 15 of his 21 points after halftime including seven of the first 10 points in the decisive 16-4 run that put St. John’s (13-7, 5-4) on course for a win and their first regular season sweep of the Wildcats (11-8, 4-4) since the 1992-93 season. It was surely a disappointment to the Villanova greats of yesteryear in attendance, including Jalen Brunson, Ryan Arcidiacono and Josh Hart of the Knicks and Mikal Bridges of the Nets.
There may be no such thing as a ‘must-win’ game in January, however Storm coach Rick Pitino framed the contest as that and so much more for his six players in their final year of college basketball.
“I try to tell them ‘don’t get too down [and] don’t get too up,’ but I told them ‘this is The Game tonight. This is The Game — make no mistake about it,’” Pitino said. “I said ‘this is the game, if you six seniors want to play in the Tournament, you must get this game.’
“This was The Game and they responded in a big way.”
St. John’s only deficits were 2-0 and 4-3 as they met Pitino’s call with high-intensity defense and high passion on the glass. On defense it held Villanova to 37.5% shooting overall including 4-for-25 on three-point attempts and turned 11 Wildcats turnovers into 18 points. On the backboards it had a 42-23 edge and the Storm got 15 offensive boards to score 17 second-chance points.
Soriano was 8-for-9 shooting and had nine rebounds and Jordan Dingle returned from two games out due to a bout with COVID-19 and scored 12 points off the bench. Daniss Jenkins and Glenn Taylor each scored nine points for the Red Storm.
Eric Dixon scored 16 points and TJ Bamba added 12 points for the Wildcats, who were handed their biggest loss to the Storm since an 82-59 decision on Jan. 25, 1998.
“This was a big game for us — we needed it,” Pitino said. “We played this game as if everything was on the line in the season. We didn’t want to go into Xavier [next Wednesday] with a four-game losing streak.”
Speaking of four-game losing streaks, the last time a Pitino-coached team had one of those on the court was with his 2003-04 Louisville Cardinals. This was the first three-gamer for a Pitino team since Louisville had a three-game skid in 2012-13.
St. John’s held a 10-point lead at halftime that Villanova pared to five in less than eight minutes by coming out of the locker rooms the more-assertive team. When Hakim Hart finished a fast break with a layup, the Storm lead was down to 40-35. Soriano scored two free throws on the ensuing possession to spark the decisive run. He would add two more free throws and a three-point play that made the score 50-39 with 9:02 to play. RJ Luis capped the run with a jumper for a 56-39 lead with 5:44 to play.
“[Soriano] had a couple timely buckets when we tried to make out push,” Wildcats coach Kyle Neptune said. “When we got on a run, he stopped it.”
Soriano opened the season with a stretch of games where he played like an all-Big East first teamer. Of late though — perhaps since a 20-point, eight-rebound showing in the win Jan. 6 at Villanova — he’d been less impactful.
“To be honest, most of my play that has been going on recently is really on me,” he said. “I know I could be way better than I was. I give a lot of credit to my teammates because they pushed me to be better . . . I’ve got to stop letting the little things get to me, I have to move on from the plays when I mess up on something. I’ve been getting too much in my head sometimes.”
When he came out of the game with 59 seconds left, the Garden crowd showered Soriano with a standing ovation, of which he said, “I’m just happy because these fans show a lot of love.”
“The big fella tonight came to play,” Pitino said. “He knew how important this game was for us and he was magnificent . . . [I’m] happy the way the whole team played because we lost a couple of really tough games at the buzzer and tonight we cast no shadow of who was going to win.”
Minko milestone. St. John’s game against Villanova on Wednesday night was the 500th broadcast for the Red Storm’s radio play-by-play man John Minko. The 70-year-old first took the position for St. John’s for the 2008-09 season, back when he was best known as a WFAN sports update reporter and the Storm games were on WFAN. Minko accepted a 2020 buyout offer from the radio station.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
