CHARLESTON, S.C. — New Hall of Fame coach, new players, same old linchpin in the middle.
Joel Soriano remains St. John’s meal ticket, and in adverse times Thursday afternoon, he saved the Johnnies from what would’ve been a disastrous loss.
The standout big man’s defense, rebounding and two clutch free throws helped St. John’s top North Texas, 53-52, in the opening round of the Charleston Classic at TD Arena.
Soriano gave St. John’s the lead for good with 1:11 left and grabbed the key defensive rebound with 2.1 seconds to go.
He finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks, a dominant performance in what was an otherwise ugly offensive effort from St. John’s after a fast start.
“He’s evolving into something really special, and I’m proud of him,” coach Rick Pitino said.
Daniss Jenkins had 17 points, but five turnovers, including one that nearly was a killer with 16 seconds left.
St. John’s (2-1) had one timeout left as Jenkins was trapped on the baseline, but he opted not to use it and his pass was stolen.
Fortunately, St. John’s got a stop on the other end — Chris Ledlum defended Aaron Scott’s pull-up jumper well — and survived to advance to the semifinals against Dayton after a day when it shot 34 percent from the field, committed 15 turnovers and managed just 23 points over the final 22 minutes 20 seconds of game action.
That was thanks to the defense, which went from nonexistent against Michigan on Monday to stingy against North Texas.
St. John’s forced 15 turnovers, created 28 deflections in the second half alone and held the Mean Green without a point over the final two minutes.
“Our guys were brilliant defensively,” Pitino said. “Offensively, we made some mistakes, but they played great defense — awesome defense. That’s what I wanted from our guys.”
Soriano’s blocks on consecutive possessions ignited a 10-0, second-half run when North Texas seemed poised to go ahead, and Soriano made pivotal plays down the stretch.
A lot has changed for the center from Yonkers since the early-preseason talk of him possibly losing his starting job to Zuby Ejiofor.
He’s gotten down to 8 percent body fat at Piitno’s urging, and has been the Johnnies’ best player in the early going.
“Joel knows this, because I tell him all the time: The more I get on you, the more I love you. The more I ignore you, the more I think you can’t play,” Pitino said. “I’m not going to get off of him, I’m going to stay on him the whole time because I want him to be a pro, I want him to reach his potential. He stayed at St. John’s, he’s loyal, he’s a great captain and I want him to be great.”
It was a much-needed victory over the Mean Green, a quality mid-major program that won the NIT title last April.
Coming off the Michigan no-show at the Garden, Pitino showed his players the film several times, and illustrated all the problems, from selfish play on the offensive end to lackadaisical effort on defense.
Soriano didn’t wait for the team-wide meeting to watch.
“I didn’t sleep that night,” he said. “I watched the game about six times.”
It certainly was an energized team early. St. John’s came out with a sense of urgency and built a 30-16 lead late in the first half.
However, like the Michigan game, it closed out that stanza poorly and that carried over to the second half.
North Texas went on an 18-4 run and got even at 34 on a Jason Edwards 3-pointer with 13:14 left. St. John’s still led by 11 with 6:02 to go, but it didn’t last.
The offense’s inconsistency enabled the Mean Green to even go ahead with two minutes left.
After the lopsided nature of the previous game, however, the Johnnies were thrilled to be moving into the winner’s bracket, ugly as this victory may have been.
“We needed this as a collective unit,” Soriano said. “We were watching a lot of film on this team, and this team was a very gritty, in-your-face type of defensive team. The way they play defense, we [want to] play defense like that.
“We knew that we had to play defense this game, especially with this type of team. That’s what it came down to today.”