By Joseph Staszewski
A fourth-straight trip to the NCAA tournament was never a sure thing for the St. John’s women’s basketball team.
The Red Storm lost a heartbreaker to the University of Connecticut at home in early February, fell to .500 overall and projected outside the field of 64. That didn’t sit well with the seniors who themselves had never missed an appearance at the Big Dance and had reached the program’s first Sweet Sixteen a year ago.
“We didn’t want to come out our senior year and not make it again,” said senior point guard Nadirah McKenith.
St. John’s quickly turned things around and closed the regular season hot. It won eight of its last 10 games and did enough to get them back into the big dance. The No. 10-seeded Red Storm hosts No. 7 Dayton in the first round at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Carnesecca Arena.
A victory earns them a match-up with the winner of No. 2 Kentucky and No. 15 Navy in the second round. The adversity St. John’s faced, including losing guard Eugenia McPherson for the season to a torn ACL, made this trip even sweeter.
“This might have been the best one because we were down and no one had us going to the tournament,” senior wing Shenneika Smith said. “This is the most satisfying one.”
The Red Storm (18-12) will have a lot working in its favor. First, it will get to play at home with the support of family and friends. Carnesecca Arena was named a site before the season began. Second, St. John’s believes it can do some damage if it plays its brand of basketball. It lost to No. 1-seeded UConn, No. 3 UCLA, No. 6 Delaware and No. 7 Syracuse by a combined 11 points.
“It makes us feel like we’re a dangerous team,” McKenith said.
Dayton will be a tall task. The Flyers finished 27-2, won an undefeated Atlantic-10 regular season title before being upset in the title game. Dayton averages four players in double figures and has a size on the front line.
First-year head Coach Joe Tartamella, who took over for Kim Barnes Arico, spoke about how proud he was of the team just for getting back to the NCAA tournament. He doesn’t want this group, especially its seniors, to stop there.
“They should go out by getting another win or two and get us out of there,” Tartamella said. “I’d like them to go out winners on their home courts.”
Red Storm men win NIT opener: Sir’Dominic Pointer beat the buzzer with a fall-away jumper from the left corner to give St. John’s a 63-61 comeback win over host St. Joseph’s University in the opening round of the NIT Tuesday night.
The victory ends the No. 5-seeded Red Storm’s five-game losing streak and earns them a trip to face No. 1 seed Virginia in the second round at a date and time to be determined. The Johnnies (17-15), who trailed by 12 at the half, didn’t lead until there was less than 3:00 to play in the game, outscoring the No. 4 Hawks 37-29 after the break.
Pointer scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds and JaKarr Sampson had 16 points for St. John’s. Chris Jones tallied 21 points to pace St. Joseph’s (18-14).
