FALL GUY: JaKarr Sampson of St. John’s flied over Seton Hall’s Haralds Karlis during the Red Storm’s 71-67 win yesterday. (Jeff Zelevansky)
In a lounge used by St. John’s during its games at the Garden — adjacent to the Knicks locker room — a fan approached Red Storm coach Steve Lavin yesterday and praised him for how this young team has come together. Lavin graciously thanked the fan but advised him to keep a vial of nitroglycerin, the heart attack medication, close at hand.
The Johnnies would have failed an EKG test yesterday in their 71-67 win over Seton Hall.
Shooting almost 70 percent, the Johnnies (13-7, 5-3 Big East) opened a 16-point lead with 14:44 to play. The Pirates (13-7, 2-5) then seized momentum and stormed back to within one with 4:22 left. Only after Seton Hall missed two wide open 3-point attempts and the front end of a one-and-one did the Cardiac Johnnies seize the win.
“The last four games have some similar themes,’’ Lavin said. “Stretches where we play brilliantly, and then stretches where teams will make runs on us.’’
For sure, although the victory — the Red Storm’s fourth straight — moved them into a tie with Pittsburgh for third place in the Big East. Let’s remember those four wins have come against Notre Dame, DePaul, Rutgers and Seton Hall, not exactly a murderer’s row of league teams.
The Johnnies have one more bottom dweller — DePaul on Wednesday night — before they get Georgetown, Connecticut, Syracuse and Louisville. St. John’s won 71-62 at DePaul on Jan. 19, a game in which the Red Storm had a 17-point lead trimmed to three before they held on.
This is what happens when a team is clearly talented and painfully young, as the Johnnies’ roster is made up of mostly freshmen and sophomores. So when their lead got to 53-37 with 14:44 left and a little patience would have been virtuous, they broke out into a game of “Horse.”
D’Angelo Harrison (24 points) missed three 3-pointers. Phil Greene IV (10 points, three assists, zero turnovers) missed two 3-pointers. And suddenly, Seton Hall had trimmed its deficit to 60-59. Time out, St. John’s.
“Our kids looked despondent, as if we had just lost the game or we’re down 25,’’ Lavin said. “But we had the one-point lead. I was like, ‘Fellas, this is the Big East.’ ’’
The bottom of the Big East.
Consider the blunders St. John’s got away with:
* After Harrison missed the second of two free throws for a 61-59 lead, Aaron Crosby was left wide open in the left corner for a 3. He missed.
* JaKarr Sampson (19 points, five rebounds) missed a jumper from the foul line, but Fuquan Edwin missed a 3 from the right wing.
* And with the Johnnies clinging to a 63-59 lead with 2:05 left, Edwin missed the front end of a one-and-one.
“You can’t win close games missing the front end of a one-and-one and missing wide-open shots,’’ said Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard.
Harrison, who made a 3 just before the halftime buzzer for a 38-33 lead, scored 11 of the Red Storm’s final 13 points, including a clutch jumper over Kyle Smyth with 1:30 left. And Chris Obekpa, the nation’s leading shot blocker, got four more rejections and tipped in a missed jumper by Jamal Branch with 35 seconds left.
Harrison, going 9-of-10 from the line, calmly sank two free throws with 11 seconds left to ice it.
“That is just our captain stepping up,’’ Sir’Dominic Pointer said of Harrison. “We are blessed to have him in that tight situation.’’
The blessing is that no St. John’s fan has been rushed to ER with chest pains. At least not yet.