By JB Ellis
The second game of the afternoon had the St Johns Red Storm facing the Seton Hall Pirates. Both teams fighting for a berth to the big dance, Seton Hall had beaten SJU both times this season. St Johns came into the game on a 5 game winning streak its last loss was to the Pirates on February 18th at UBS arena. Seton Hall was 3-2 since February 18th with losses to Creighton and UConn.
Seton Hall started off hot up 13-8 at the 1st TV timeout hitting a couple of 3’s a consistent problem the Red Storm has had is guarding the 3 point line. Things changed after that, as Coach Pitino said in the Press Conference he wanted his team playing race horse basketball and putting all the pressure on the Pirates.St Johns went on a big 5-0 run to lead 39-34 with around 7 minutes to go in the 1st half. St Johns went to the half up 45-40 on a buzzer beater by RJ Luis and SJU was ahead on every important statistical category and dominating.
The Second half the Red Storm looked even better pushing the pace in Pitino’s plan going up by 12 with under 4 minutes to go. Seton Hall just couldn’t claw its way back into the game in the second half. St Johns had 6 players in double digits in points and Joel Soriano had a double double with 12 boards to go with his 14 points. Dawes paced Seton Hall with 22 but it was not enough to keep Seton Hall in the game as St Johns won 91-72 and will face UConn Friday night at MSG in the conference Semifinals.
