Whether St. John’s is having a disappointing season or not, the comfort of home at Madison Square Garden for the Big East tournament can be a welcome elixir come March.
The eighth-seeded Red Storm embraced the confines of their second home for much of Wednesday’s tournament opener, dominating No. 9 seed Butler, 76-63, and cooling down the hot seat under coach Mike Anderson, at least for a few hours.
The win sets up a rematch with top-seeded Marquette, who the Johnnies (18-14) nearly knocked off in the regular-season finale the previous Saturday. The quarterfinal tips off Thursday at noon.
St. John’s entered the tournament with essentially no shot at earning an NCAA bid for a fourth straight year under Anderson’s leadership unless it ran the table at the Garden.
Joel Soriano owned the paint, scoring 19 points, grabbing 15 rebounds, and blocking 2 shots. AJ Storr added 15 points, Posh Alexander 13 points, and Dylan Addae-Wusu had 10 points and 10 rebounds, and four assists with Alexander and Addae-Wusu pushing the tempo on the Bulldogs (14-18) at every opportunity.
This is the kind of basketball Johnnies fans have a right to expect from this team.
If there was momentum to be had from the second-half rally in the 96-94 loss at Marquette in the regular season finale, the Johnnies grabbed it tightly, especially on the glass. It wasn’t just Soriano. St. John’s had more offensive rebounds than Butler had in total boards for most of the game and held a 53-28 margin overall.
That stat, among other issues, had to concern Butler coach Thad Matta, who returned to Hinkle Fieldhouse after successful runs at Xavier and Ohio State to help turn around a program that had fallen on a few rough seasons in the Big East.
When Alexander hit his first 3-pointer 3:04 into the game, St. John’s led, 9-7, and never trailed again. That started a 20-9 Red Storm run. After Butler pulled within five at 26-21 with 6:56 left in the first half, Soriano led the Johnnies on an 18-8 run to end the half and a commanding 44-29 lead.
The margin ballooned to 21 at 54-33 before the Red Storm, perhaps saving some juice for Tyler Kolek and Marquette in less than 24 hours, took the foot off the gas a little and Butler started making a few more shots.
Simas Lukosius had 23 points and Jalen Thomas added 20 points and six rebounds for the Bulldogs.
Whether Anderson can get the Johnnies to turn it back on against Marquette and keep the critics at bay for another day will be answered on the Garden floor on Thursday afternoon.