St. John's aims to shake shooting struggles vs. Harvard

Three games in the Bahamas went from being a potential resume-builder to a disappointment for St. John's.

After an underwhelming week bumped them from the AP Top 25, the Red Storm attempt to bounce back Saturday when they host Harvard in New York.

St. John's (5-2) won its first four games and entered the rankings for the first time since January 2019 but promptly dropped out after a 1-2 showing in the Bahamas. The Red Storm blew an 18-point lead to then-No. 13 Baylor in a double-overtime loss and fell 66-63 to Georgia in a one-off game on Sunday. Those losses sandwiched an 80-55 thumping of Virginia to close the Baha Mar Championship.

Sunday's loss was St. John's worst offensive showing of the young season. The Red Storm finished with their third-fewest points under second-year coach Rick Pitino and shot a season-low 31.1 percent from the floor.

"We had a difficult day offensively," Pitino said after his team shot 2-of-19 from 3-point range and lost despite forcing 24 turnovers. "Our shots were not going down."

However, St. John's did get a few effective individual performances. Zuby Ejiofor scored 12 of his game-high 22 points at the free throw line, while Aaron Scott and RJ Luis Jr. chipped in 14 and 13 points, respectively.

Kadary Richmond managed just three points on 1-of-8 shooting Sunday after tallying 26 points across his previous two games.

"As long as we play hard, fight, try to win games, I think we'll be OK," Pitino said. "We're certainly not a great team, but we're a pretty good team."

Harvard (2-5) is averaging 66.9 points so far and is facing its second opponent from a power conference after a 22-point loss at Colorado on Nov. 17. The Crimson were held below 60 points for the third time and shot less than 40 percent for the fourth time when they took a 62-54 home loss to UMass on Wednesday.

"It was what we thought it would be -- the kind of game it usually has been with our two teams fighting, clawing and scratching for a chance to come out on top," Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said after Wednesday's game.

Robert Hinton leads the Crimson with 16.4 points per game but finished in single digits against UMass for the third time in four outings. The freshman guard is 17-for-45 from the field in his past four games.

--Field Level Media