All the momentum from Xavier University's men's basketball win on Friday over UConn disappeared Wednesday in a deflating performance at Cintas Center against St. John's.
Xavier led 57-56 with 11:52 left only to watch St. John's close the game with a 30-16 run that Xavier seemed incapable of doing anything about.
Fans headed for the exits early as the Musketeers got thoroughly run right off their own floor, 86-73.
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"They wanted it more than us," Xavier big man Jack Nunge said.
When asked if he felt like St. John's wanted it more, head coach Travis Steele said, "I think for, up until about the eight-minute mark (in the second half), I would disagree with that. I thought when we got punched in the mouth, late, when we had a couple turnovers and missed a couple shots, and they got a couple run-outs, I think our guys looked shell-shocked."
Xavier's inability to work through adversity late in the game was glaring.
"I didn't think we handled adversity well enough tonight," said Steele. "And I thought that was honestly the determining factor in the game."
Xavier's defense was asleep at the wheel, giving up 45 first-half points, the most allowed in a half this season.
The 86 points allowed by Xavier were also a season-high.
Xavier did everything wrong defensively against St. John's. The Musketeers let St. John's get out and run in transition, and they let the Red Storm have their way in one-on-one situations, where Xavier looked completely unable to stop them.
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"Getting back and guarding the ball," Steele said. "St. John's isn't a very complicated team. They're very, very simple. They have really good players and they play really, really fast. And coach (Mike) Anderson does a great job putting his players in positions to be successful."
Xavier didn't stop the ball in transition and they did a bad job of getting matched up against the right players when St. John's pushed the pace. And the Musketeers were completely out-matched in the half-court.
"In the half-court, I just felt like we weren't guarding the ball," Steele said. "Man, we work on that every single day. We work on that and transition defense. That's part of our system, of who we are. Nothing scouting specific, it's just our system.
"... Our system got exposed tonight."
St. John's made 34 field goals – 21 of those were either layups or dunks. The Red Storm finished with 24 assists and 27 fast-break points.
St. John's star Julian Champagnie was impossible for Xavier to stop, even a little bit. Champagnie finished with a game-high 27 points, one of four Red Storm players to score in double figures.
"I thought we got spread out too much on the defensive end," Steele said. "We always say, listen, don't make it a game of one-on-one, make it a game of one-on-three. They gotta see arms and bodies and eyes."
Unfortunately for Xavier, all St. John's saw was space to attack.
No one wearing a Xavier jersey defended well. It was a complete defensive breakdown, unlike anything Xavier's been a part of this season.
When the game started to get away from Xavier, St. John's jumped in its zone defense and the Musketeers couldn't make anything from the perimeter to get back in the game.
Xavier shot 1-of-12 from beyond the arc in the second half and went 4-of-20 in the game, but no matter how well Xavier shot it or didn't shoot it, the Musketeers didn't play an ounce of defense.
Nunge led Xavier with 22 points. Paul Scruggs had 16.
Xavier falls to 17-8 overall and 7-7 in the Big East Conference. The Musketeers are staring at a treacherous three-game stretch ahead at UConn, at Providence and at home against Seton Hall.
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