College Basketball

St. John’s battles, but falls to No. 20 Wisconsin

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Talent will only take them so far.

St. John’s displayed an overwhelming amount of athleticism and potential in their highly anticipated season-opener on Friday night, but ultimately the team looked like a group still searching for the chemistry possessed by 20th-ranked Wisconsin, which handed the Red Storm an 86-75 loss at the Sanford Pentagon.

Coach Steve Lavin’s fourth season boasts perhaps the school’s most talented team in 15 years, but St. John’s was crushed on the boards early and fell into an 18-point hole in the first half. The Red Storm couldn’t match the balance of Wisconsin, who had five players score in double-figures, while D’Angelo Harrison and JaKarr Sampson were Lavin’s only players to reach that mark.

“We shot ourselves in the foot,” Harrison said. “You can’t get down by 18 to one of the better teams. We got it together, we cut it to four, but we didn’t have enough. Eighteen was too much.”

Harrison led the team with 27 points, but it was Sampson who brought them back in the second half, finishing with 21 points and a team-high seven rebounds, erasing any concerns of a sophomore slump after a shaky preseason.

Sampson electrified the team with power and passion, owning the inside and attacking the rim. He cut the lead to 53-47 with 9:25 left in the game — the smallest deficit since the first six minutes of the game — and then sliced it to four after one of his three dunks. But Wisconsin’s Sam Dekker and Ben Brust soon hit devastating back-to-back 3-pointers to put the game out of reach.

“We just played with a lot more focus. We just did everything we should’ve done in the first half,” Sampson said. “I think it’s just a lack of concentration. We were ready for this game. We just didn’t lock in and focus on what we needed to do.”

Last season, the Red Storm were the Big East’s worst 3-point shooting team, and last night, they didn’t look any better. They hit 2-of-13 from outside, while Wisconsin hit 11-of-23 and never trailed, using timely passing to scatter St. John’s defense for a slew of open 3’s.

The Badgers followed coach Bo Ryan’s formula — killing the shot clock, dominating the offensive glass and creating turnovers — while St. John’s had trouble acclimating to one another on offense, opening 5-of-17 from the field.

“When you challenge yourself early with an opponent like Wisconsin, I knew we’d have our hands full but we wanted this challenge,” said Lavin, who graded his team’s overall performance a C-minus. “If you play an inferior opponent and pound them by 20, you don’t really learn about yourself the way you do with this.”

Much-hyped freshman point guard Rysheed Jordan started, but had a difficult debut, opening 0-for-4 from the field with no assists and three turnovers in the first half. He finished with six points, on 2-of-9 shooting, with three assists and three rebounds.

Led by Traevon Jackson’s nine first-half points, the Badgers took a 31-13 lead with less than five minutes left in the half, but a 10-2 St. John’s run cut the score to 35-23 at halftime.

The second half then showed what the Red Storm could be. They just aren’t there yet.

“You watch this team, you can see some things developing out there,” Ryan said. “Are you kidding me? This team will get better, and I’m glad we played them tonight. That’s all I can tell you.”