Kadary Richmond awakens to rally St. John’s to win over Butler

Was this the start for Kadary Richmond?

In a game St. John’s couldn’t lose, he took over down the stretch. He made big plays on defense.

He finished off drives at the rim.

He was there for the Red Storm on a day they again were abysmal from the 3-point line.

Richmond had five points, two steals and an assist in the final 4:48, helping St. John’s rally from seven points down in the second half to knock off Butler, 70-62, at Carnesecca Arena on Saturday afternoon.

His steal and dish for an RJ Luis dunk gave St. John’s the lead for good and he scored the next four points to extend the advantage.

St. John’s was able to exhale and improve to 3-1 in league play despite shooting 1 of 21 from 3-point range.

Luis had 20 points and 11 rebounds, Zuby Ejiofor followed with 14 points and eight rebounds and Richmond had 11 points, six rebounds and six assists.

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Pierre Brooks had 17 points for Butler.

It was a disastrous offensive first half for St. John’s.

At one point, it missed 17 of 18 shots and shot a dreadful 29.7 percent from the field.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS AND ST. JOHN’S STATS

The Johnnies were again stagnant, didn’t move the ball and were ice-cold from the field.

Richmond missed six of his eight field-goal attempts.

Ejiofor was scoreless.

The Johnnies missed nine of 10 3-point attempts and were 3 of 21 on shots other than layups and dunks.

They only trailed by four at the half because Butler was almost as bad.

The Bulldogs started by shooting 1 of 15 from the field and missed 8 of 11 free throw attempts.

St. John’s woke up after halftime.

It ripped off a 16-3 run to go up seven.

It began playing fast, fueled by the press and Ejiofor’s 10 points in the first 6:30 of the stanza.

But Butler responded with an 11-2 burst that was capped by consecutive 3-pointers by Patrick McCaffery to give the Bulldogs the lead back with 10:11 to go.