For the senior class of the St. John’s men’s basketball team, the goal was to finally play in an NCAA tournament game. It was a goal that eluded them for three years and when they took to the court in Denver, Colorado, in the second-round of the Southeast Region, a team from Gonzaga University thwarted their hopes of keeping that dream alive for at least one more game.
The Red Storm jumped out to an early six point lead but then ran into difficulties as No. 11 seed Gonzaga countered with an 12-0 run, shooting just under 60% from the field in the first half including 4-7 from beyond the three-point arc and taking a 43-32 lead into the locker room.
Coming out of the break, freshman Dwayne Polee II connected on a jumper and made a free throw and quickly sliced the Bulldogs lead to eight.
Gonzaga answered the Red Storm basket with three consecutive three-pointers and the lead was stretched to fourteen. St. John’s would later cut the deficit to ten at 60-50 however that would be as close as they would get. The Bulldogs shot 53.8% from the field for the game including a sizzling 60% from beyond the three-point line. Gonzaga also outscored the Red Storm bench with a 16-4 margin.
“I said to the kids right after the game that while losing is heartbreaking and losing in the NCAA tournament is heartbreaking, when they get out a month, two, three months, a year, five years from now, they're going to look back and realize that they brought St. John's basketball back,” said head coach Steve Lavin. “I really wanted the team, the players, to be aware that while it doesn't take the sting away from this loss, they set the bar high for anyone that follows. This young group coming in next year will be the youngest team in the country, the youngest team in St. John's history. They have lofty standards now to live up to because of this group of 10 seniors that put the foundation in the place for the future of our program and gave our coaching staff the ride of a lifetime.”
The Red Storm (21-12) were led by the BIG EAST Most Improved Player Dwight Hardy. The Bronx native scored a game-high 26 points as St. John’s finished with four players in double figures.
Senior forward Justin Brownlee totaled 14 points and added three steals. Polee II added 12 points with three assists and three steals and senior guard Paris Horne finished with 11 points.
St. John’s suffered a tremendous blow prior to the NCAA Tournament when senior swingman D.J. Kennedy tore his ACL during a match-up with Syracuse in the BIG EAST Tournament.
Kennedy supported his fellow teammates from the bench as best he could while Red Storm fans who made the trip out west donned “Do It For D.J.” t-shirts in their support of the injured player.
Despite their shortcomings in the tournament, St. John’s surprised the college basketball world this season as first-year head coach Steve Lavin took a stagnant program and turned it into one of the elite teams in the BIG EAST.
