MILWAUKEE — Another day, same script.
Fight against elite opponents until the last moment.
It’s good, but it’s a little lacking.
St. John’s inability to end a frustrating game continued Saturday night, as the Johnnys blew a 15-point first half lead in a disappointing 86-75 loss to No. 7 Marquette at a packed Fiserv Forum.
They didn’t have an answer for reigning Big East Player of the Year Tyler Kolek.
After a hot shooting start, the 3-point shots stopped falling.
St. John’s University, once expected to make it to the NCAA Tournament, suffered another blow with its sixth loss in eight games.
They have fallen to 2-8 in Quad 1 matches, and their chances to push for a restart in the tournament are running out.
Coming out of the final media timeout, St. John’s trailed by just two points, but Nahiem Alleyne and Chris Ledlum missed layups and Marquette cut the lead to six points with 2:15 left. It spread out, cutting off any hope the Johnnys had.
Danis Jenkins gave it his all, scoring 22 points and adding six assists.
RJ Lewis had 13 points and Alleyne had 12 points. Joel Soriano continued to struggle despite his no-show, scoring two points and grabbing four rebounds.
He didn’t even start the second half.
Kolek had 27 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds, and Steve Mitchell had 14 points.
St. John’s trailed by 20 points after halftime and allowed Marquette to shoot a solid 59.4 percent from the field.
