The second time around against Cincinnati was not the same for St. John’s. This time, with home-court advantage, Cincinnati closed down a resurgent St. John’s last Wednesday night at Fifth Third Arena.
“When [Cincinnati] came to us we out-rebounded, we got to loose balls, we did that to them,” said head coach Norm Roberts. “When we were there we said, ‘Guys, be aware they are going to try and do the same thing to us that we did to them,’ and that’s what they did. But, once again, it’s a learning experience for the guys to understand.”
St. John’s sophomore guard Larry Wright tried to save the young Red Storm in order to clinch the team’s fourth consecutive win, but could not do it alone. Wright finished with 14 points in the 60-48 loss.
Poor shooting and freshmen mistakes plagued the Johnnies, as the Bearcats took out St. John’s inside presence.
“Justin [Burrell] drew a lot of attention. Our team probably knew that he was going to be double-teamed a lot,” Wright said. “[But] we played very slow and sluggish and that caused the loss.”
Cincinnati went up by as much as 25 points at the 5:00 mark of the second half when the score was 55-30 after the Bearcats went on a 32-10 run.
Senior forward John Williamson led the Bearcats with 11-of-18 shooting and finished with a season-high 25 points.
