By Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News
Wednesday night’s historic loss to UConn was already all but decided by the time St. John’s star Zuby Ejiofor took an elbow to the face, leaving him with a bloody lip late in the second half.
Yet the scene nonetheless served as a fitting visual representation of the forceful haymaker St. John’s sustained in its 72-40 defeat by the Huskies in Hartford, which snapped a 13-game winning streak.
But to stick with the boxing analogy, there’s still time for St. John’s to get up off the mat.
“Championship-level teams respond in a positive way,” Ejiofor said afterward. “And my job is to make sure that we are a lot more prepared for the next opponent than we were tonight.”
With the lopsided loss, No. 15 St. John’s fell to 15-2 in conference play and now trails UConn (16-2) by a half-game for the Big East lead.
But winning out would still guarantee St. John’s at least a share of the conference’s regular season championship.
And the Red Storm still control their own destiny for the top seed in the Big East Tournament because they currently hold the tiebreaker over No. 6 UConn (more on that later).
However, St. John’s must rebound quickly from Wednesday night’s knockdown, as a loss to surging Villanova (13-4 in conference play) at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night would likely put them on the ropes.
“This loss is one that you really want to forget and move on to the next opponent,” Ejiofor said, “because Villanova is a great team as well.”
St. John’s has three games remaining on its regular season schedule, while UConn has only two. If both teams win out, the Red Storm and the Huskies would finish with identical 18-2 records in Big East play.
Because St. John’s and UConn split their head-to-head season series, the tiebreaker for the Big East Tournament’s top seed will be decided by their records against the next-highest-ranked team in the conference.
Neither St. John’s nor UConn has lost to third-place Villanova or fourth-place Seton Hall.
So, as it stands now, the Red Storm’s 2-0 record against fifth-place Creighton gives them the edge over UConn, which split its two games with the Bluejays.
All of that may seem complicated, but this isn’t: St. John’s will have to play much better against Villanova, Georgetown and Seton Hall down the stretch than it did against Connecticut.
“All I know is we didn’t play good offense,” head coach Rick Pitino said. “We did things that we’ve never done. Again, it’s something I’ve got to question about myself, and I will question it, because the team did not do the things we’ve done in the last 13 games. Give them credit. We’ll move on.”
Indeed, the numbers against UConn weren’t pretty.
St. John’s missed its final 24 shots and endured scoreless droughts of seven minutes, 23 seconds and 10 minutes, 47 seconds.
The 32-point win was UConn’s largest margin of victory ever against St. John’s.
The Red Storm’s 40 points were the fewest ever for a Pitino-coached team.
But throughout the season, Pitino has lauded the way his team doesn’t panic. That quality would serve St. John’s well against a Villanova team that it defeated, 86-79, in Philadelphia on Jan. 17 but that enters Saturday having won seven of eight.
“We’re still playing for a [Big East] championship,” Pitino said. “It doesn’t matter whether you lose by one or 40. The league championship’s still at stake. Obviously, we’ve got to make our corrections and move on.”
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