St. John’s pulls away in second half over Villanova

St. John’s has found itself in some pretty difficult situations already this season, but none quite like Saturday night when it faced Villanova at the Garden.

The Red Storm had to go without point guard Deivon Smith after he suffered a dislocated right shoulder near the end of the first half. They struggled without him, even tried to bring the badly hampered 6-footer back for a brief time in the second half, but found themselves dead even with the Wildcats and just over four minutes to play.

But these seem to be the times that bring out the best in St. John’s. The defense was there as always and RJ Luis Jr., Simeon Wilcher and Kadary Richmond scored 26 of the Red Storm’s final 30 points and the Red Storm closed the game with an 18-7 run for an 80-68 Big East win before 18,178 at Madison Square Garden.

The Red Storm (14-3, 5-1) have won nine of their last 10 games and very well could be ranked in the AP Top 25 when the poll is released on Monday. How long they may be without Smith remains to be seen.

Luis had 30 points — 23 in the second half — and 10 rebounds, Smith had 12 points, all before the injury, and Aaron Scott had 12 points to lead St. John’s, which was plus-15 on the backboards.

Wooga Poplar had 22 points and Eric Dixon, who came in leading the nation in scoring average at 25.7, had 18 points and shot 6-for-19 for Villanova (11-6, 4-2).

Smith got hurt with 2:02 left in the first half when he collided with Poplar as they both went for a pass. The Storm point guard, giving up five inches and 22 pounds to the Wildcats’ swingman, got the worst of the collision. He lay on the court, his face contorted and holding his left shoulder, for more than a minute and went straight to the locker room afterward.

At halftime, St. John’s officials said he’d suffered a dislocated right shoulder and when the team returned to the court, he didn’t warm up and sat on the bench with his arm in a sling.

Without Smith in the game as the team’s rudder, the Storm seemed to lack direction and decisiveness and their five-point halftime lead quickly became a three-point deficit. Looking to pull out of the slide, coach Rick Pitino called on Smith, who removed his sling and went into the game with his body heavily wrapped.

But whatever lift Smith was able to give was only emotional. He often ran with his right arm dangling at his side, eschewed the contact when the Wildcats put screens on him and, the righthanded shooter, opted against taking open three-pointers.

With 8:29 to play and the Storm deficit still three points, Pitino pulled the plug on the experiment. Kadary Richmond took the reins and immediately delivered a three-point play and a pull-up jumper on consecutive possessions for a 57-54 St. John’s lead with 6:29 left.

Another lead that didn’t last. Poplar put back an Eric Dixon miss with 4:22 left to tie the game at 61-61.

St. John’s and Villanova played a dogged and tight first half, but the Red Storm managed to put together a late 13-4 run to get a little breaking room. Zuby Ejiofor had six points and Luis five points in the run, which put St. John’s ahead 34-27 with 1:23 left. They held a 36-31 lead at halftime.

The Garden crowd was very much involved from the start, however it did go silent when Smith got hurt near the end of the first half.

In the first half, Smith had 12 points, four rebounds and zero turnovers in 14 minutes.

The bigger thing about Smith’s performance was that when the ’Cats opened the game with hot shooting on the three-point arc, he kept the Storm in the game by making a trio of threes. They accounted for nine of the team’s first 13 points.