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When St. John’s needed big buckets on Saturday against Harvard, RJ Luis Jr. and Kadary Richmond found ways to lift the Red Storm to a win.
The 77-64 victory was closer than many would have predicted, and the Crimson managed to pull within eight on three separate occasions in the second half.
The Johnnies were coming off a tough trip to the Bahamas, where they lost winnable games against Baylor and Georgia.
It was Luis who made a big layup with 7:19 remaining on Saturday to restore St John’s double-digit lead. He followed it up with a second-chance 3-pointer less than a minute later. The guard scored 24 points on 9-for-18 shooting and had a game-high 10 rebounds.
Richmond’s driving layup in the paint with just over three minutes left helped St. John’s respond after Harvard’s Evan Nelson made it an eight-point game again. Richmond finished with 18 points and eight rebounds in more than 30 minutes.
A dunk by Luis with just over three minutes left once again restored the Red Storm lead to double digits. St. John’s closed out the final 3:43 with a 10-7 run to hold on for the win.
“Not necessarily,” Luis responded when asked if there was a certain mindset when the game got close. “I feel like basketball is a game of runs, so they went on a run. We had to make sure we had enough stops to ultimately win the game. [Richmond and I] are two leaders on the court. He’s a great point guard, so he took advantage of what he saw. I played through what I got from the offense, so that’s it.”
Head coach Rick Pitino used 10 players in the game, but never turned to Deivon Smith. The St. John’s guard has been in the doghouse since poorly reacting to his benching during the Georgia loss.
Instead of suspending Smith, Pitino asked his players to determine a punishment. The coach confirmed that they decided to bench Smith Saturday and he said it will be their decision when Smith returns to the lineup.
“It’s very possible. It’s up to the team,” Pitino said when asked if Smith may not play the next game against Kansas State, which visits the Johnnies on Dec. 7.
St. John’s never trailed Harvard and shot 44.3 percent from the field and 22.2 percent from 3-point range.
Jaiden Glover came off the bench to score 11 points in roughly 19 minutes. Glover averaged five minutes in five prior appearances this season.
“I think it was great for Jaiden tonight,” Pitino said. “That type of experience is invaluable, and can only help our basketball team. I’ve got a lot of confidence in Jaiden.”
The Johnnies rolled right from the opening tip-off, jumping out to a 9-0 lead, starting with a layup from Richmond. Luis had four points in the stretch and Simeon Wilcher capped it with a corner 3 a little more than three minutes into the game.
The Crimson didn’t score their first basket until 3:31 into the first half, but stifled the Red Storm’s run with six straight points to pull within three. Luis responded with a layup that gave St. John’s that kicked off a 13-2 run to put them ahead by 16, their largest lead of the half.
Richmond extended the St. John’s lead to 18 early in the second half, but the Crimson chipped away until it was down to eight with 8:04 left, when Chandler Pigge hit a free throw.
“Teams like Harvard, Princeton, Columbia right now give us a little bit of a problem,” Pitino said. “They’re five out and they cause problems for us defensively because we’re a help team. We load up on help and they can cause problems for you.”
He added: “We just didn’t get a whole lot out of our four and fives today. That’s pretty much because of the spread, but, we’ll take it. It’s a good win for us coming off a long trip.”
