Justin Burrell attacked the defensive glass like his pride depended on it Monday night. Paris Horne clawed his way through every screen. And D.J. Kennedy willed his way to the basket. St. John's has found urgency.
Sparked by a pair of upset losses, the Red Storm staged what coach Steve Lavin called a "grind-it-out slugfest" against Davidson. They were tenacious on defense and rebounded with passion to score an important 62-57 victory in the Holiday Festival semifinals before 6,956 at the Garden.
The Johnnies' aggression after getting upset by St. Bonaventure and Fordham was evident in their physical play from the outset.
Lavin was called for a technical foul 3:17 into the game and before it was over St. John's Dele Coker and Davidson's Jake Cohen were called for unsportsmanlike technicals and St. John's Justin Brownlee and Davidson's Clint Mann were called for intentional hard fouls. Brownlee even opened a gash over Cohen's left eye.
"That's how games are played in the Big East, it's how they're played at the Garden and it's how they're played in the neighborhood," said Davidson coach Bob McKillop, a Queens native who knows.
But in the end it was the Johnnies' high intensity level on defense that brought the win. They held the Wildcats without a point over the final 5:15. Burrell made both ends of a one-and-one with 5:04 to play to break a 57-57 tie. The only other points scored the rest of the way were Dwight Hardy free throws. He made one of two with 16.8 seconds left after Brownlee pulled down a key offensive rebound. And he made two to ice it with 3.4 seconds left.
" It took us a while to get over that game. We felt we should have won that (Fordham) game, being up 21," said Kennedy, who had 10 of his 17 points in the second half after St. John's trailed 27-24 at the half. "Late in the game and down the stretch the mindset was 'not again.' We just refused to lose.
"Games like those (losses) hurt, but they help you in the end."
Lavin called the triumph "an example of a group of kids that really had the . . . resolve to find a way to get a victory. That's what impressed me most."
St. John's (6-3) will meet unbeaten Northwestern (8-0) in Tuesday night's 9:30 p.m. championship game. Davidson will face St. Francis (N.Y.) in the 7 p.m. consolation game.
Down three, Davidson was able to get Brendan McKillop a three-point look with about five seconds left that rimmed out. McKillop said "it felt good out of my hands. . . . it just didn't fall."
Hardy had12 points, Brownlee had 11 points and Burrell seven rebounds for the Johnnies. McKillop finished with 17 points and Cohen 14 points for Davidson (5-5).
No play embodied the Johnnies' defensive intensity more than the final play of the first half. St. John's committed a turnover and Da'Mon Brooks was driving for an uncontested dunk in the final seconds. Horne came out of nowhere and got way above the rim to swat it as the buzzer sounded.
"It was a big play," Lavin said. "We'd thrown the interception. . . . that really charged the Garden up."
NORTHWESTERN 92, ST. FRANCIS 61
Northwestern put on a three-point shooting clinic to defeat St. Francis (N.Y.), 92-61, in the first Holiday Festival semifinal and advance to Tuesday night's 9:30 p.m. championship game. The Wildcats (8-0) shot 46% from behind the arc including 8-for-14 as they built a 45-31 halftime lead. NU is 8-0 for the first time since 1993-94.
Drew Crawford had seven of his 25 points and John Shurna had six of his 26 points in a 19-2 run that put the 'Cats up 36-19 with 3:49 before halftime. Crawford also had nine rebounds and eight assists. Michael Thompson added 14 points for NU.
The Terriers (6-4) scored the first seven points of the second half, but got not closer than 45-38. Travis Nichols had 17 points for St. Francis, which rode the subway to the game from its Brooklyn Heights campus. The Terriers will play in Tuesday night's 7 p.m. consolation.
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