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There are grueling ways to end a regular season, losses that burn and images that sting for the ages.
That’s the kind of loss St. John’s suffered yesterday at the Garden.
The last vision the Johnnies have is of the entire Marquette team, right in front of the Red Storm bench, piled on top of Vander Blue, who hit a driving scoop layup over the condor-like reach of Chris Obekpa as time expired in overtime, giving the Golden Eagles a 69-67 win and a share of the Big East regular-season title — and leaving St. John’s heartbroken.
“It’s really hard after being down by however much and fighting back and then just being there tied in overtime and coming up short at the end, it’s really hard,’’ said freshman forward Christian Jones who had his best game of the season with 10 points and six rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench. “We still fought.’’
Without leading scorer D’Angelo Harrison, suspended for the rest of the season on Feb. 28 for conduct detrimental to the team, and forward Sir’Dominic Pointer, suspended after getting ejected for fighting from the 66-40 loss at Notre Dame on Tuesday night, the Johnnies almost pulled off what would arguably have been the upset of the season in the Big East.
They trailed by as many as 14 in the second half and by nine with 1:53 left, but staged a furious comeback. Jamal Branch’s coast-to-coast layup with 27 seconds left tied the score at 63-63.
But with 27 seconds left in OT, Felix Balamou’s wing jumper appeared to graze the rim. The shot clock did not reset, forcing Phil Green IV, who had a game-high 20 points, to force up a 3-pointer that missed. Marquette (23-7, 14-4 Big East) called time out with seven seconds left, just enough time for Blue to make the Johnnies really blue.
The loss leaves St. John’s (16-14, 8-10) in precarious position for a postseason tournament. If the Johnnies don’t win their Big East Tournament opener, they are in grave danger of not garnering an NIT berth, forget an NCAA bid. The NIT takes the 32 best at-large teams remaining after the NCAA gets the top 37 at-large teams.
Asked if the Johnnies were one of the best at-large teams in the nation, Amir Garrett was definitive.
“I don’t think there’s [69] teams out there that’s better than us,’’ said Garrett. “I know that for a fact.’’
After Cincinnati’s 61-53 overtime win over South Florida, St. John’s earned the No. 10 seed and will play No. 7 Villanova at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
Villanova edged the Johnnies 98-86 in overtime in the conference opener on Jan. 2. St. John’s will have Pointer but won’t have Harrison.
And they will have a four game losing streak, accentuated by yesterday’s emotionally crushing loss. The Red Storm, losers of four straight, have lost six of seven and seven of nine since beating South Florida on Feb. 20 and looking to be on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
“No other way to slice it other than it’s been a tough month,’’ said coach Steve Lavin, who referred to this season as the bridge to next year, when every player is eligible to return.
If the Johnnies had stayed on the court a few more seconds after officials ruled Blue’s shot beat the clock, they would have had one more painful vision — the Golden Eagles celebrating with the Big East regular-season trophy.
“Could not have scripted it better,’’ said Marquette coach Buzz Williams. “I am emotionally bankrupt.’’
So is St. John’s.