Torrid St. Johns sends Tulane to sixth straight loss
Less than three minutes into its game with Tulane, St. John’s saved a ball headed over the baseline with a wild throw that almost went out of bounds near midcourt. That errant toss was saved again with another blind pass.
Seconds later, the Red Storm’s Marcus LoVett drained a wide open 3-pointer against a scrambled defense.
That was the start of a deluge. St. John’s kept raining in 3s from just about every spot on the court in a ridiculous display that sank Tulane’s hopes of ending a five-game losing streak almost right away.
“Once they got to free stroking, they took some shots that when they took them, I was like, OK, good,” Tulane coach Mike Dunleavy said. “They hit nothing but net. It was tough. Once you let the horse out of the barn, it’s sometimes tough to get it back in.”
The Wave (1-7), playing its first home game since its lone victory against Southeastern Louisiana on Nov. 14, lost 95-75 on Friday night at Devlin Fieldhouse. St. John’s (3-5) snapped a five-game skid, leading by as many as 29 points.
When Federico Mussini hit a 3 with 9:24 left, it was the Red Storm’s ninth made trey in a row and 10th out of 11. Three days after launching 37 3-pointers and connecting on only 12 in an embarrassing home loss to Delaware State, St. John’s exceeded anything coach Chris Mullin, a proud alum, did in Hall of Fame college and NBA careers.
The Red Storm finished 16 of 25 from long range, tying a school record for 3s. Rinse, wash, repeat.
“It’s hard to know we stressed the fact they were a 3-point shooting team,” Dunleavy said. “We wanted to run them off the line. Believe me, we knew who they were.”
The treys accounting for the first 30 points the Red Storm scored, with five players draining at least one. Some of them were wide open, but others were tightly contested, including one when Tulane’s Melvin Frazier, had his hand in the face of LoVett.
“You know it’s not going to last,” Mullin said. “I was thinking we’ve got to make some 2s because we can’t live like that. But we were rewarded for our unselfishness.”
Tulane, which trailed wire to wire in a 74-59 loss to UNO on Tuesday, led this one early thanks to two 3-pointers from Malik Morgan. But St. Johns hit four 3s in less than two minutes during a 12-0 run to go ahead 18-8 and never looked back.
Dunleavy altered his starting lineup, inserting Ray Ona Embo for fellow freshman Colin Slater at point guard. The Wave also welcomed back forward Melvin Frazier, who missed the UNO game on Tuesday night with a back injury.
Dunleavy considers Frazier and Ona Embo his best defenders, but they were helpless against St. John’s blizzard of 3-point buckets.
Tulane was 305th out of 347 Division I teams in field goal percentage defense before facing St. John’s.
LoVett, a four-star recruit who sat out 2015-16 due to academic issues, led balanced scoring for St. John’s with 18 points.
Senior center Ryan Smith had a career-high 17 points for Tulane, hitting 7 of 9 shots from close range. HIs 2s were no match for the Red Storm’s 3s.
Morgan added 15 points, and Frazier contributed 13.
“He (Dunleavy)’s probably where I was last year,” said Mullin, who went 8-24 in his first season. “He’s got a young team. It takes time with a new staff. Each day’s an adventure.”