A 20-point lead had been trimmed to four, a laughter suddenly becoming a white-knuckle nail-biter.
Chris Obekpa, however, eased the frayed nerves of St. John’s and its fans, living up to his “Game Changer” nickname with two blocked shots and a big assist in the final 5:17 Sunday to thwart a furious rally by DePaul.
“He saved the day,” St. John’s coach Steve Lavin said.
Indeed, Obekpa’s drive and feed to Orlando Sanchez for a dunk and rejections of Billy Garrett Jr. and Brandon Young enabled the Red Storm to hold off DePaul for a much-needed 72-64 victory at the Garden, their first win in three contests to keep their at-large NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
“The same way [D’Angelo Harrison] feels when he makes a game-winning shot, that’s the same way I feel making a game-winning block,” Obekpa said.
St. John’s — playing without freshman point guard Rysheed Jordan, who attended his aunt’s funeral on Friday and was on the bench in street clothes — moved to within a game of fourth place in the Big East, behind Marquette and Providence, and look ahead to Saturday’s conference finale against Marquette in Milwaukee before the Big East Tournament begins March 12 at the Garden.
Some experts say the Johnnies need to get to 22 wins to receive an at-large bid in the field of 68, others say 21. Harrison, however, has tunnel vision.
“Our job is to win games, we got to win against Marquette. That’s end of story,” Harrison said. “I don’t turn on ‘SportsCenter.’ I don’t look at that. I watch NBATV.”
Harrison rebounded from a 1 of 11, two-point performance in Tuesday’s loss to Xavier by scoring a game-high 25 points along with 10 rebounds. He had 11 points in the early going, as the Johnnies built a 22-10 lead.
It was 48-28 with 13:21 remaining, before St. John’s (19-11, 9-8) suddenly fell asleep. DePaul ripped off a 23-7 run to get within 55-51 with 5:56 left, as the Johnnies got sloppy with the ball — they uncharacteristically committed 16 turnovers — and left the Blue Demons open from the perimeter. Still, they held on, led by Obekpa’s heroics.
The sophomore center had 11 rebounds and five blocks, Sir’Dominic Pointer added 14 points and Orlando Sanchez notched 13 points and eight rebounds. Young scored 23 points for DePaul (11-19, 3-14).
“This group impresses me with their fight back, with their resourcefulness, their ingenuity,” Lavin said. “They keep it interesting. We’re going to have sequences when we’re running into each other, falling down like bowling pins. … and the Keystone Cops routine was in full effect. But at the end of it, I really like the group’s chemistry.
“Where that takes us, only time will tell … over these next couple of weeks, but to dig ourselves out of that 0-5 hole [in the Big East] to be 9-8 going onto the Marquette game, it’s something in my career that is going to stand out as really special. And now we’d like to pay it off by making a run and doing something in March.”