St. John's honors Lou Carnesecca with a win legendary coach would be proud of

Lou Carnesecca filled the St. John’s arena one more time on Saturday afternoon.

The building was renamed in 2003 for the iconic St. John’s coach who steered the program to 24 winning seasons and the 1985 Final Four before retiring in 1992. However, for the sellout crowd of 5,602 who came to see the Red Storm take on Kansas State at Carnesecca Arena in their first game since he passed away on Nov. 30 at the age of 99, they got one more taste of the old days.

There were fan giveaways and a video tribute and a moment of silence that ended with a big cheer. And there was a roar when coach Rick Pitino slipped off his sport jacket to reveal a replica of the chevron sweater that Carnesecca made famous. Then the Red Storm played a game that would have made the old coach proud, shaking off a substandard first half and roaring to an 88-71 non-conference victory behind Zuby Ejiofor’s finest game.

“I don’t think I would have ever forgiven myself if we lost this game,” Pitino said. “It was really, really important that we get a win for Lou. Great crowd, great second half, a lot of emotion behind the game.”

The Red Storm (7-2) led for only 30 seconds of the first half. The Wildcats (6-3) shot 8-for-15 on three-pointers and St. John’s missed a slew of layups against the sizable Kansas State front line.

In the second half, St. John’s played like a behemoth, with Ejiofor scoring 17 of his 28 points and grabbing seven of his 13 rebounds.

Soon after halftime, St. John’s erupted with an 18-3 run to grab the upper hand. Simeon Wilcher had six points in the run and RJ Luis Jr. and Aaron Scott capped it with three-pointers on consecutive possessions for a 53-44 lead with 15:32 to play. The place was deafening.

“I feel like he was there with us today,” Wilcher said of Carnesecca. “All the extra energy we had coming into the second half felt like that was from Coach himself. It felt like he was just there with us. We all felt that. We all turned it up a little bit and then the whole gym felt it because the gym was erupting the whole time . . . That was the loudest I’ve heard it so far.”

Ejiofor took over from there, scoring 15 of the Red Storm’s next 19 points to make it 72-55 with 7:48 left.

“His death was something we all felt,’’ Ejiofor said, “especially those of us that were here last year and just knowing the history of what he meant — not only just St. John’s but the [Big East] — we kind of fed off that and we were going to play for him this game and we came up with a win.’’

Kadary Richmond had 13 points and six rebounds, Luis finished with 11 points and eight rebounds and Wilcher also had 11 points for St. John’s. In the second half, the Red Storm defense held K-State to 0-for-10 shooting from three-point range and allowed only five offensive rebounds.

St. John’s also saw the return of Deivon Smith from a team-imposed penalty for his conduct during and after the Nov. 24 loss to Georgia in the Bahamas. Smith was held out of last weekend’s win over Harvard. He came off the bench with 14:40 in the first half and ended up with five points, nine rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes.

“He came back, he’s fine [with me],” Pitino said. “I told him, ‘Look, I’ve got the shortest memory in the world. Everybody makes mistakes. It’s what you do about mistakes that counts.’ ”

Villanova transfer Brendan Hausen had 27 points, including six three-pointers, for the Wildcats.

“They knew how important this night was for all the ex-players and all the fans because of how important Lou was to them,” Pitino said. “The players tonight, they played with tremendous heart and they did Lou proud and they did me proud, the fans, all the ex-players who came back.”

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.