BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The first half was ugly. The second half was frustrating.
Combine the two, and St. John’s suffered its first defeat of the young season.
Facing one of its two big non-conference tests, the Johnnies started slowly. They rebounded in the second half. But it wasn’t enough. The hole was too deep. Their inability to make enough clutch plays down the stretch — particularly on the defensive end — wouldn’t allow it in a 76-74 loss to Indiana in the Gavitt Tipoff Games at a sold-out and raucous Assembly Hall.
“Regarding the first half, we can’t play like that — ever — to start a game like that. Especially when we play teams like this,” said junior star Julian Champagnie, who poured in a game-high 32 points and added seven rebounds. “It put us in a poor spot going into the second half, where we have to waste more energy in order to climb back in the game, which we did. On a positive note, we fought — we fought extremely hard.”
There were many factors that contributed to the narrow loss. The poor opening half in which St. John’s committed as many turnovers (nine) as made field goals (nine), and trailed by as much as 13. The Flagrant 2 foul and automatic ejection assessed to newcomer Montez Mathis, one of the team’s better defenders, in the opening half.
But, most of all, there was St. John’s inability to get that one key stop down the stretch. Three times, the Johnnies got within one in the final minute, and each time Indiana answered with a basket by playing through star forward Trayce Jackson-Davis (18 points, 10 rebounds, four assists) to create an open shot.
“We have to step up,” Champagnie said. “We have to get that stop.”
St. John’s did have one last chance to force overtime — or win the game with a 3-pointer — after Xavier Johnson split two free throws with 8.4 seconds left. But without a timeout left, they couldn’t set up a play, and Champagnie was forced into a desperation heave that failed to draw iron.
Maybe it would’ve been different had Mathis not been ejected. With 6:45 left in the first half, he threw the ball away in the backcourt and fouled Indiana guard Trey Galloway hard, dragging him down. Asked about the officials’ decision, coach Mike Anderson said he would have to watch the replay. He declined to share what they told him.
“It was definitely a huge blow,” Champagnie said. “It hurt a lot.”
There were bright spots in the defeat. Champagnie looked every bit like a future NBA player, draining six 3-pointers. After a shaky start, Stef Smith scored 16 points, and was by far the best of the five transfers. Freshmen O’Mar Stanley and Rafael Pinzon belonged. Despite an off-game from Posh Alexander — he was limited by foul trouble in the first half and committed five turnovers, two of them costly in the final minutes — and several newcomers struggling, St. John’s (2-1) was in position at the end to steal the game. It just couldn’t finish off the victory.
“First thing I told those guys, ‘I liked the gut-check. It was a gut-check at halftime and ya’ll responded,’ ” Anderson said. “We didn’t get the result we wanted to, but it’s something we’re going to continue to build on.”