SAN FRANCISCO — It took a 3,000-mile road trip for St. John’s to learn that talk is cheap.
The Red Storm have been winning games of late despite a disturbing propensity for falling behind, often by double digits, only to rally for wins. It happened again Tuesday night, only this time the Johnnies couldn’t claw their way out. They were beaten 81-65 by a University of San Francisco team that played, in coach Steve Lavin’s words, “mature basketball.”
Translation, his young Johnnies played like juveniles.
“Tonight, I thought was our most uneven performance from start to finish,” Lavin said. “There have been games where I thought we played well for 20 minutes or 25, 30 minutes. But I thought from start to finish, this was our most uneven performance.”
Players and coach said the Red Storm’s West Coast mini-vacation did not factor into the team’s uneven play. Lavin’s father, Cappy, and players from San Francisco’s NIT championship team of 1949 and its NCAA titles teams of 1955 and 1956 were honored at halftime, and the Red Storm players got a chance to meet Lavin’s family.
The Red Storm did volunteer work at a shelter, toured Alcatraz and AT&T Park and ate like kings, but they played like paupers.
JaKarr Sampson had 22 points on 10-of-17 shooting. D’Angelo Harrison added 14 on 5-of-16 shooting. Everyone else suffered jet lag. San Francisco for 21 points from De’End Parker and 18 points and a career-high 14 assists from Cody Doolin, whom Lavin said was Steve Nash-like.
“When teams come in with a high-caliber name, you know like, ‘We the man,’ so we always as players are going to have a chip on our shoulder,” Parker said. “We know when we play Montana it’s going to be a good game. We know when we play Columbia it’s going to be a good game. We know when we play St. John’s you got to bring your ‘A’ game.”
Woo, there it is, St. John’s. The Big East Conference might have taken some punishing blows of late, but the name St. John’s still has a revered place in college basketball. When the NJIT’s and Holy Crosses of the world take the floor, they’re bringing their ‘A’ game.
The Johnnies (6-3), who saw their four-game win streak snapped, now have it on record: Fall behind early at your own demise.
The Johnnies fell behind 36-27 in the first half but rallied to trail 38-35 at the break. San Francisco (5-1) pushed the lead back to 54-41 only to have St. John’s rally to 59-56. They got no closer.
Fordham waits for St. John’s on Saturday with St. Francis to follow.
“It’s good to get this one before we get into Big East play,” Harrison said. “Now we know we can’t get down 10 on the road. We have to be five field goals ahead on the road. We can’t get down 10 at home. There are too many good teams out there.”
lenn.robbins@nypost.com