St. Francis Falls to St. John's 63-56; 1st Garden Coaching Win for SJU's Mullin

11a.m. on Sunday morning—a time when most good Catholics might typically be in church—two of New York City’s parochial basketball powers met at Madison Square Garden in the 2015 Advance Auto Parts Holiday Festival.

Despite being in rebuilding mode under first-year coach and Hall of Famer Chris Mullin, St. John’s extended a decades-long dominance of it’s Catholic rival St. Francis Brooklyn, beating the Terriers 63-56.

With the win the Johnnies now own a 66-12 all-time edge in the series, including wins in 33 of the past 34 contests.

St. John’s (5-3) was led by Durand Johnson (19 points on 7 of 12 shooting), Yankuba Sima (17 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks) and Christian Jones (13 points, 9 rebounds).

Yunis Hopkinson and Antonio Jenifer led St. Francis (3-5) with 10 points each, while Amdy Fall chipped in ten rebounds. The Terriers were plagued by poor shoot: 6 of 21 from three-point range and 34% of their shots (21-62) overall.

For Mullin, who enjoyed many great nights at the Garden as a player for St. John’s as well as for Golden State and Indiana in the NBA, his first-ever time coaching experience on MSG’s hardwood was a moment to savor.

“I love this place, always have, always will,” Mullin said following the game. “Madison Square Gardens is always a place you want to play in and have a good night.”

The Brooklyn native, who is enshrined in both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, added: “Nice seeing Coach Carnesecca [Mullin’s coach at St. John’s from 1981-85] behind me, which was surreal.”

St. John’s Johnson, who hit a shot in the game’s waning moments to squelch a last gasp Terrier rally, said: “I took that shot with a lot of confidence, and it went in.”

It’s been like that a lot when these two teams meet. St. Johns vs. St. Francis Brooklyn is as one-sided a contest as exists in college basketball. But coming off a 73-57 Bronx mauling Wednesday at Fordham, there was hope that the underdog Terriers might steal a win over the Johnnies at the Garden, the Queens-based program’s home away from Carnesecca Arena.

A fast start gave St. Francis fans hope as their team jumped out to a 23-14 lead with seven minutes to go in the first half. A Mullin time out turned out to be one of the game’s pivotal moments as the Johnnies went on a 19-0 run to take a 33-25 lead into intermission.

After falling behind by as many as 13 points midway through the second half, the Terriers rallied to 57-55 on a Hopkinson layup . Within 30 seconds remaining and seconds left on the shot clock, Johnson nailed a floater from the left corner to ice St. Francis.

The combo of Sima and Johnson may have wrecked the Terrier dreams of a memorable Holiday Festival but their dreadful shooting and suspect work on the boards—St. Francis was out-rebounded 45-33—were also factors.

Chris Hooper of St. Francis was sanguine in breaking down the big push the Johnnies enjoyed at the end of the first half.

“It’s college, everyone makes runs,” Hooper said. “We made our run, they made theirs. It’s just how you deal with it. They punch, we punch back.”

Clearly Hooper’s squad needs to fight harder the next time these two teams meet.

St. Francis head coach Glenn Braica, who was an assistant coach at St. John’s (2004-9) before taking the top job in Brooklyn Heights, looked past the disappointment of his team’s latest loss to the Johnnies.

“[The loss is] not going to determine our season.” Braica said following the game. “We just want to move forward from it and get better as the year moves on.”

PHOTO CAPTION: St. John’s Durand Johnson driving past St. Francis’s Gunnar Olafsson at Madison Square Garden

PHOTO CREDIT: St. John’s Athletics