St. John's falls to No. 22 Creighton on Trey Alexander's late free throws
St. John's Zuby Ejiofor, left, battles for a rebound against Creighton's Ryan Kalkbrenner, rear center, and Baylor Scheierman during the first half of an NCAA basketball game Saturday in Omaha, Neb. Credit: AP/Rebecca S. Gratz
OMAHA, Neb. — St. John’s second crack at taking down a nationally ranked opponent went no better than the first. The Red Storm played well and the upset was there for the taking — just as it was Dec. 23 against Connecticut — but they couldn’t quite wrest it from No. 22 Creighton and suffered a 66-65 Big East loss before 17,164 who braved a minus-30 wind chill to be at CHI Health Center on Saturday.
In a game that featured 18 lead changes and seven ties, St. John’s went ahead 65-64 when Daniss Jenkins found Joel Soriano for a layup with 2:02 to play.
The Red Storm got a key stop when Trey Alexander missed a jumper with 17 seconds left, but they couldn’t secure the rebound as several players, including Jenkins and Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner, tumbled to the floor.
Alexander ended up with the ball again, got fouled by Jenkins and made two free throws with 12.3 seconds left to give Creighton (13-4, 4-2) the lead.
In the final seconds, Jenkins missed a jumper in the lane over the 7-1 Kalkbrenner and the rebound went off the fingers of Chris Ledlum to Jordan Dingle, who got a shot off before the buzzer. When it came off the rim, the St. John’s players seemed stunned, perhaps waiting for a foul on Francisco Farabello.
“I think there was definitely contact,” Dingle said. “I can’t go back and change the call. The ref decided that it wasn’t a foul for whatever reason. It was a shot that I could have made and I think I should have in all honesty, but I did get hit.”
In the second half, the Red Storm were whistled for 15 fouls to Creighton’s five and the Bluejays took 18 free throws to St. John’s four.
Rick Pitino opted not to blame the officiating and said: “This was an extremely disappointing loss for us. We played good enough to win, but on the road, you’ve got to get loose balls, you’ve got to get rebounds.”
Soriano had 13 points and 11 rebounds and Jenkins had 11 points and five assists for the Red Storm (12-5, 4-2). Kalkbrenner had 18 points and nine rebounds and Baylor Scheierman added 17 points and 12 rebounds for Creighton.
“I don’t think this one hurts any more [than UConn],” Dingle said. “Those were both games that we could have won; we had the lead and we should have done more to sustain it.”
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.
