Sports

Inexperienced St. John’s fizzles out vs. Murray State

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Steve Lavin and his star freshman forward, JaKarr Sampson, stood in the hallway of the TD Arena outside the St. John’s locker room deep in conversation. The St. John’s coach was discussing an ill-advised outlet pass Sampson threw late in Friday night’s 72-67 loss to Murray State in the semifinals of the Charleston Classic.

It was a similar conversation to one Lavin had with freshman forward Christian Jones, after he committed a turnover by trying to do too much, too quickly. A team comprised of mostly freshmen and sophomores requires a lot of one-on-one teaching.

Murray State coach Steve Prohm, who starts four seniors and a redshirt junior from a team that won 31 games last season, only had to have one talk with his team. It came with under eight minutes to go and his Racers trailing, 59-52. He told them it was winning time.

“These guys have been through a lot,’’ Prohm said. “We’ve got great experience and those guys have been through it.’’

The Racers have been through it, so they got through it last night, overcoming Red Storm leads of 13 in the first half and eight with 8:31 to go in the second. They used a 12-0 run — with four players hitting 3-pointers — to turn that 59-52 deficit into a 64-59 lead with 4:40 to play.

“It was a punch-counterpunch game and they landed the haymaker punch that knocked us out late,’’ Lavin said.

The Johnnies (2-1), who will play No. 16 Baylor (3-1) tomorrow in the consolation game, got a game- and season-high 27 points from D’Angelo Harrison. He missed two 3-points tries and Sampson (14 points, seven rebounds) missed another in the final minute, when the Johnnies had a chance to tie.

It never should have come to desperation 3’s. The Red Storm followed their game plan well, getting back on defense and moving the ball on offense.

They knew from the scouting report the Racers like to run and star guard Isaiah Canaan had to be controlled. Instead, his teammates did the damage. Stacy Wilson had a career-high 23 points to lead four Racers in double figures.

“This was a really good learning lesson for our kids,’’ Lavin said. “You prefer to win and learn some valuable lessons. Unfortunately sometimes you lose some games, you have to take it on the chin.’’

Murray State (3-0) will play Colorado (3-0) in tomorrow’s championship game. The Buffaloes had better be ready. The Racers are talented, experienced and tough. As Lavin said, they stuck to their game plan.

After not getting a fast-break point in the first half, the Racers scored 15 in the second. After going 5-of-18 on 3’s in the first half, they went 5-of-12 in the second. The Johnnies committed eight of their 14 turnovers in the second half and, after outscoring Murray State 14-6 in the paint in the first half, got outscored 20-14 in the second.

Why were the Racers able to go on their decisive run?

“I guess [because they’re] older,’’ Sampson said. “I don’t want to use that as an excuse because I felt like we still could have won the game. … We had the game. We had it. It was just mental mistakes, young mistakes I want to call them.’’

Despite the “young mistakes,” the Johnnies — led by Harrison — were there at the end.

Then came those missed 3-pointers — including Harrison’s with 16 seconds left.

Harrison converted his third three-point play of the game with 3:39 left to make it 64-62.

But the Johnnies failed to get out on Wilson, who buried Murray’s 10th 3-pointer on 30 attempts. The Johnnies were a woeful 2-of-14.

After Harrison missed one from the right wing with 53 seconds left and Sampson missed one from the left corner with 23 seconds remaining, Harrison tried to draw contact on a 3 with 16 seconds left.

“I should have just shot it regular and then if he hit me, he hit me,’’ said Harrison. “When I watch film, I’m probably going to watch that shot about a thousand times.’’

Lavin will have what will feel like a thousand conversations this season with these young Johnnies. Anything not to take it on the chin.

* Askia Booker scored 19 points and Colorado survived some dreadful foul shooting down the stretch to hold off No. 16 Baylor 60-58 in the other Charleston Classic semifinal.

The Buffaloes (3-0) earned a measure of payback for last March, when the Bears (3-1) knocked them out in the NCAA tournament.

Baylor star Pierre Jackson had just 12 points after scoring 31 in an opening-round win against Boston College.

* Sophomore Sir’Dom Pointer suffered a hip injury in the first half and did not return. His status for tomorrow is uncertain. … Junior Marc-Antoine Bourgault of France was cleared by the NCAA Friday morning, caught a flight here and played five minutes in the first half.