Sports

St. John’s beats St. Joe’s on Pointer buzzer beater, advances in NIT

PHILADELPHIA — St. John’s may be a team composed of underclassmen, but they certainly didn’t play like it last night.

Sophomore Sir’Dominic Pointer hit a shot from the corner at the buzzer to give the Johnnies a 63-61 win over St. Joseph’s in the first round of the NIT — their first victory since Feb. 20. They will face Virginia in the second round, day and site to be determined.

St. Joseph’s tied the game with a pair of free throws by Ronald Roberts with five seconds remaining. But Pointer raced up court and sank a pull-up jumper, which caused euphoria on the court and on the St. John’s sidelines.

“At the free throw line, I told my big man if he made the free throw to just give me the ball and I’d make a play,” said Pointer, who was suspended for the regular-season finale for his role in a fight March 5 against Notre Dame. “They stopped me from driving and making a layup, so I hit a step-back and made a good shot.”

“It felt good. I never hit a shot like that in college, so it was good.”

Coach Steve Lavin has said this game and tournament will serve as a great learning experience for his young team. No one on the Red Storm roster had any postseason experience before last night.

“This is a big moment. We all wanted to be in the NCAA Tournament, but this was the first postseason game for our team,” Lavin said. “And now to get a postseason win makes it even more important as we move forward to building this program.”

The Red Storm (17-15) trailed the Hawks (18-14) at halftime, 32-26, and fell behind by as many of 12 in the second half. But they stayed in the game by shooting 55 percent in the second half and committing just seven turnovers in the entire game.

“Only seven turnovers on the road is an impressive number,” Lavin said. “It’s easy when you fall down 12 on the road to be discouraged to a point where you think a loss is inevitable, and to our kids’ credit they had just enough to get over the top.”

In the first half, sloppy defense and poor shot selection allowed St. Joseph’s to race out to a 6-0 lead. But the Red Storm never let the game get out of reach.

“Our motivation was to keep playing, keep our season going. Every team has a bad start but you have to push through,” Pointer said. “We are a young team but we are learning.”

Coming in having lost five games in a row, St. John’s was reeling, unable to recover after star player D’Angelo Harrison was suspended for the season on March 1. But Pointer (15 points) and Big East Conference Rookie of the Year JaKaar Sampson (16) led the second-half rally.

Two more wins will earn the Red Storm a trip to the NIT semifinals on their home court at Madison Square Garden, a fact not lost on Pointer.

“It would feel great, going back home on our home floor,” he said. “It would be a great experience, especially since St. John’s has won this tournament more than any other team ever to play in the NIT.”

Chris Jones led the way for the Hawks with 21 points, and Langston Galloway had 16.