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Xavier falls at St. John's, dropping its fifth straight

adam baum, cincinnati enquirer
·4 min read

QUEENS, N.Y. – The darkest, most tumultuous stretch of the season continued on Wednesday night at St. John's as the Xavier Musketeers suffered a fifth consecutive loss, 81-66, bringing serious doubt for the hope of an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament.

Xavier's now lost seven of its last eight games and what began as a promising season has turned into a nightmare for a team with one regular-season game left on Saturday against Georgetown.

Mar 2, 2022; Queens, New York, USA; Xavier Musketeers forward Jack Nunge (24) falls on top of St. John's Red Storm forward O'Mar Stanley (4) in the first half at Carnesecca Arena.
Mar 2, 2022; Queens, New York, USA; Xavier Musketeers forward Jack Nunge (24) falls on top of St. John's Red Storm forward O'Mar Stanley (4) in the first half at Carnesecca Arena.

The Musketeers are likely looking at a scenario where they have work to do in next week's Big East Conference Tournament in order to make the NCAA Tournament.

After starting the season 11-1, Xavier's now 17-12 overall and 7-11 in the Big East.

There were a few key areas where this game was decided. Here's a look at what went wrong in Xavier's loss at St. John's.

Two stretches decided this game

Despite starting the game 3-of-22 from the field, Xavier closed the first half shooting 8-of-17 and only trailed 33-29 at halftime.

Xavier's defense fell apart in the first three minutes of the second half.

St. John's made three 3-pointers the entire first half. The Red Storm drilled three deep balls to open the second half and build a 44-34 lead.

"What really hurt us was giving up threes," said Xavier head coach Travis Steele. "We weren't there on the catch on a couple of really good shooters."

One of those shooters Xavier left open was Tareq Coburn, who averages 4.8 points per game and went for 20 against the Musketeers on Wednesday with five 3-pointers.

"You can't do that against some really good shooters like that," said Steele. "You gotta be there on the catch. You gotta take them out of their rhythm."

The other key spot came after Xavier made a run to get back in the game and cut the lead down to 52-49 with 8:37 left.

Over the next four minutes, though, St. John's went on an 18-6 run and took complete control of the game.

It was a stretch where St. John's really got moving in transition off a lot of Xavier's missed shots and Xavier didn't have much of an answer for the zone defense St. John's threw at them.

The Red Storm had six points in transition in the first and 24 in the second half.

Xavier's defense played well in the first half. The second half was a drastically different story. St. John's scored 48 points in the second half and did it shooting 16-of-27 from the field and 5-of-11 from beyond the arc.

Paul Scruggs, Zach Freemantle struggled

It's hard to win games when two key players struggle. Scruggs only played 10 minutes in the second half after playing 18 minutes in the first half. Freemantle played five minutes in the second half.

Scruggs had four of Xavier's nine turnovers and finished with seven points on 3-of-9 shooting.

Mar 2, 2022; Queens, New York, USA; Xavier Musketeers guard Paul Scruggs (1) moves in between St. John's Red Storm guard Tareq Coburn (10) and forward Julian Champagnie (2) for a lay-up attempt in the first half at Carnesecca Arena.
Mar 2, 2022; Queens, New York, USA; Xavier Musketeers guard Paul Scruggs (1) moves in between St. John's Red Storm guard Tareq Coburn (10) and forward Julian Champagnie (2) for a lay-up attempt in the first half at Carnesecca Arena.

Freemantle had a hard time matching up with the athleticism presented by St. John's and Xavier was outscored by 17 points when he was on the floor.

It's hard for Xavier to win when two of its starters aren't playing well on the same night.

Shooting hurt Xavier again

The defense in the second half was bad enough that maybe no amount of shot-making could have saved the Musketeers.

The way St. John's plays defense is designed to allow a lot of 3-pointers, and Xavier couldn't make that hurt.

"They give up a lot of threes," said Steele. "That's what their defense is kind of built on.

"They're a team that really floods to the ball on penetration. ... So you gotta be able to make the one more (pass), gotta space out the floor and you gotta step into it with confidence."

Xavier went 5-of-30 from beyond the arc and the Musketeers weren't much better inside the arc. Xavier shot 32% from the field on 23-of-71 shooting and the final box score had Xavier 11-for-26 on layups.

Can Xavier recover?

After five straight losses, Xavier's season is in danger of slipping through its fingers.

It's unclear if Xavier will recover from the current slump in time to secure an NCAA Tournament bid.

"Is it natural to be down a little bit after a game? Yeah, we're disappointed," said Steele. "... We got good guys in there. They love each other. They love to play for Xavier. They love to represent Xavier. We're gonna represent it the right way on Saturday."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Xavier Musketeers basketball falls to St. John's Red Storm