St. John's Deivon Smith sits, Jaiden Glover steps up in win over Harvard

Deivon Smith didn’t get a minute of playing time for St. John’s on Saturday. That created enough of them for freshman Jaiden Glover to leave a huge impression.

Spending the game on the bench is part of the discipline Smith is receiving for his actions last Sunday as St. John’s suffered a three-point loss to unranked Georgia in the final game of their trip to the Bahamas.

The guard reacted badly to being out of the game and didn’t play in the final 13:18, and Pitino said Friday that the conduct issue continued after the game. He said he would leave it to the captains and the team to mete out Smith’s punishment.

After St. John’s 77-64 non-conference win over Harvard before an announced sellout crowd of 5,602 at Carnesecca Arena, Pitino explained that benching Smith for the game was part of a team decision that included holding him out of practices.

Asked if the punishment is over, Pitino said Smith will return to practices this week and “the team will decide when he is going to play.”

That left the opening for Glover, a Brooklyn kid who was a highly sought recruit out of The Patrick School (New Jersey). He filled the void with a career-high 11 points and three assists in 19 minutes. Glover made three three-pointers, including one at the halftime buzzer for a 40-28 lead.

“I felt like before I was just rushing and just trying to get [shots] off, but today I just felt more comfortable,” said Glover, who had appeared in five of the previous seven games and played a total of 26 minutes.

Pitino called his play an example of “the silver lining in every cloud” and added, “That type of experience is invaluable and can only help a basketball team.”

St. John’s (6-2) led by 18 points early in the second half, but Harvard twice moved within eight points before RJ Luis Jr. and Kadary Richmond delivered the Red Storm from danger. The two totaled all of the points in an 8-3 run to restore the lead to 73-60. With Brady Dunlap contributing a pair of key offensive rebounds, St. John’s held on from there.

“I feel like [Richmond] and me are two leaders on the court,” Luis said. “He’s a great point guard [and] he took advantage of what he’d seen. I just played through what I got through the offense.”

Luis had 24 points, 10 rebounds and four assists and Richmond added 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists to lead the Red Storm. Simeon Wilcher added 12 points.

“I’ll go home tonight and say Brady Dunlap was our MVP and nobody else will agree with that, but I thought he was,” Pitino said after the 6-7 sophomore contributed two points, seven rebounds and a steal. “He wouldn’t let them get back in the game with his incredible hustle.”

Chandler Pigge had 15 points for the Crimson (2-6).

Pitino went with a starting lineup of Luis, Richmond, Wilcher, Zuby Ejiofor and Aaron Scott. He also substituted liberally in the first 20 minutes, giving the fans a chance to see some players who don’t get many minutes and creating some unusual lineups. Only eight minutes into the game, the Red Storm had deployed 10 different players, but Smith had not removed the jersey of his warm-ups.

Glover came off the bench 6:03 into the game, played 8:30 before halftime and scored all of his 11 points. In a string of three Red Storm possessions, he had an assist on a basket by Ejiofor and a pair of three-pointers. Then he hit a fadeaway three at the halftime horn.

“Brady told me before the game, ‘This is your game right here,’ ” Glover said. “After I hit the buzzer-beater at the half, he was like, ‘I called it, I called it!’ ”

“That’s how he hoops in practice every day,” Luis said. “Just the confidence, it was good to see . . . It’s nice to see him get his opportunity and take advantage of it.”

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.