St. John's opens Big East Tournament with convincing win over Butler
St. John’s did what No. 1 seeds are supposed to do early in conference tournaments: Take care of business.
The Red Storm opened their Big East Tournament run on Thursday by cruising to a 78-57 victory over No. 9 seed Butler at Madison Square Garden.
Coach Rick Pitino on several occasions called it a “four-star” performance, not a “five-star” one, but it was more than good enough.
Next up for St. John’s (28-4) will be No. 5 seed Marquette (23-9) in a 6:30 p.m. semifinal on Friday. Marquette defeated No. 4 seed Xavier, 89-87, in the other Thursday afternoon quarterfinal.
This is only the second time since 2000 that St. John’s has reached the Big East semifinals. The other time was last year.
“Every time we step on that floor as a team, as a unit, we want to come out and be the best team,” said RJ Luis Jr., who led both teams with 20 points. St. John’s outscored Butler by 32 points with Luis on the floor.
He added, “We want to be deserving of that No. 1 seed, continue to play hard together and not take any games for granted. Coach Pitino told us to play this game like it was our last. I think that’s what we did.”
Kadary Richmond fell just short of a triple-double with 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. Although St. John’s got two players on the Big East first team in Luis and Zuby Ejiofor, the Red Storm thought Richmond deserved a spot, too.
“A lot of our team was upset that Kadary wasn’t first-team all-league,” Pitino said. “I understand it, because it’s getting tough to get in three guys.
“I said, ‘Kadary, your teammates and coaching staff think you’re [among the] top three guards in the nation. Maybe the best guard in the nation. So what does that [all-Big East team] matter? You’ve got the respect of every coach and every teammate.”
Said Richmond: “I feel like I’m just making the right play, just going out there, playing basketball and having fun freely. Guys are making shots. That’s really it.”
Senior Patrick McCaffery led Butler (14-19) with 16 points. As he left the court with 2:05 left, he embraced his brother Connor, a Butler assistant coach, and wept as he contemplated the end of his college career.
Connor’s girlfriend, Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, watched the game from the second row courtside.
While St. John’s was playing in familiar environs at the Garden — where it now is 10-0 this season — its fans had to share the building with those of the other seven teams playing on Thursday.
“The energy was good,” Pitino said. “We didn’t have a lot of our fans here. There was a lot of blue. Must be Marquette.”
Pitino said he hopes that as the tournament goes on and fewer teams are alive, St. John’s fans will be able to get their hands on more tickets.
“It was a little different,” Luis said. “It was definitely not a home crowd . . . But it was pretty cool.”
Butler suffered an early setback when its leading scorer, Jahmyl Telfort, picked up his second personal foul 2:05 into the game and took a seat.
His absence helped St. John’s get off to a strong start. The Red Storm led 18-3 and 25-8.
But Butler got back into the game with several key three-point baskets, cutting the deficit to single digits at 33-24 on a three-pointer by McCaffery with 2:32 left in the first half.
The Red Storm led 37-26 at halftime. St. John’s had nine offensive rebounds in the first half, flashing one of its trademarks, and finished with 14.
Butler opened with a 1-3-1 zone defense, which it abandoned because it helped St. John’s have its way on the boards.
Butler got within eight on two occasions early in the second half, but St. John’s scored 10 points in a row, and suddenly it was 49-31 with 15:29 left.
St. John’s led by as many as 23 at 74-51.
“We did a lot of good things,” Pitino said. “We did a lot of things we need to get better at. But overall, it was a four-star performance, and we’ll take it.”
Notes & quotes: There was a video tribute to Lou Carnesecca during a media timeout. The former St. John’s coach died in November at 99 . . . Former St. John’s star Walter Berry was introduced on the court during a second-half timeout.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.