By Anthony Bosco
The St. John’s University men’s basketball team lost another painfully close Big East Conference matchup Sunday, falling to the Villanova University Wildcats, 85-74, at the Pavilion in Philadelphia.
The loss was the fourth consecutive conference defeat for the Red Storm since back-to-back victories over non-Big East foes Holy Cross and Niagara, dropping interim coach Kevin Clark’s record to 2-6 since taking over for Mike Jarvis on Dec. 19.
“I think everybody is tired of saying that we’re right there,” said senior forward Kyle Cuffe. “We just want to start winning.”
St. John’s seemed poised to break into the conference win column early on, storming out to an 11-6 lead seven minutes into the first half. It grew to seven moments later when sophomore Elijah Ingram countered a Mike Nardi three-pointer with a trey of his own and sophomore Daryll Hill scored his third basket of the half to make the score 16-9.
The lead was still seven at the midway point of the half before the Wildcats began to claw their way out of the hole and close in on the Red Storm.
Led by the freshman Nardi, Randy Foye and New York metropolitan area products Allan Ray, Curtis Sumpter and Jason Fraser, Villanova (10-5, 2-1) went on a 13-4 run that gave it a 24-22 advantage with five minutes remaining in the first half.
Cuffe and Hill responded with back-to-back buckets to give the lead back to SJU, but another Nardi three in the final minute allowed Villanova to take a 31-29 lead into the locker rooms at halftime.
Ray started the scoring in the second half and, after a Grady Reynolds’ free throw, the Wildcats took a six-point lead when Nardi connected on yet another three. Three by Cuffe and Hill sandwiched a traditional three-point play by Nardi to keep it close momentarily, but a seven-point Villanova spurt, capped by a Ray trey, put the Storm down by 10.
The Villanova lead grew to as much as 14, when Foye buried one from long distance at the 9:25 mark to make the score 63-49, but the St. John’s players never quit trying to fight their way back into the game.
A 21-11 run led by the inspired play of Cuffe cut the Wildcats’ advantage to four, 74-70, with just less than four minutes remaining in regulation. But that would be as close as St. John’s would get. The Storm then went stone cold from the field, while the home team managed to do just enough to pull away and win.
Hill, the former Cardozo High School standout, had one of his best games as a member of the Red Storm in the loss, scoring a career-high 20 points with seven assists and four steals. Cuffe scored 17 points and grabbed five rebounds off the bench, while Reynolds added 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Andre Stanley scored 11 with seven boards and three assists.
Villanova was led by Nardi with 23, including 4-of-5 from behind the arc. Ray added 21, followed by Sumpter with 15, Foye with 13 and Fraser with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Villanova shot just under 51 percent for the game, including 10-of-22 from long range.
Miami 70, St. John’s 64. The Red Storm dropped another closely contested conference battle Jan. 14, falling to the Hurricanes by six at Alumni Hall. Reynolds and Ingram both had 16, while Hill added 14, but it was not enough as Miami got 18 from Robert Hite, 15 from Guillermo Diaz and 14 from Darius Rice.
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 130.
