Sometimes you need to steal one. Sometimes you simply need to escape. At the end a long afternoon at the Garden, St. John’s had 68 points, and Providence had 66. At the end of the day, St. John’s had Kadary Richmond on its side and Providence didn’t.
At the end of the day, St. John’s was 19-3 overall and 10-1 in the Big East, and Providence was 11-11 and 5-6.
For so much of the day, we were planning to talk about defense. Specifically, just how far the kind of defense St. John’s has made a common practice of playing can take a team. There were long stretches of the game where the Friars looked flabbergasted to the point of frustration, unable to take shots let alone make them. That’s what the Johnnies had done to Georgetown earlier in the week. That result had been an epic blowout.
And then, in a flash, a most extraordinary thing happened. St. John’s was up 55-37 with seven minutes to go. The splendid Saturday afternoon crowd of 19,196 had reached that level of blissful delight when it’s clear the home team is going to cruise home, maybe take a victory lap or two. So it’s possible they didn’t much pay attention when Providence scored eight quick points to make it 55-45.
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