The St. John’s Women’s Basketball team shaved a 14-point deficit to just two in the final minute of the contest, but the shorthanded Red Storm was unable to close the gap, as Brown escaped Carnesecca Arena with a 75-72 victory on Thursday night.
In a game scheduled just two days prior, the Red Storm (5-7) played without the services of Leilani Correa and Danielle Patterson, two of the team’s top four scorers. Correa, a 2021 First Team All-BIG EAST pick, leads the conference with 20.8 points per game this season.
Kadaja Bailey rose to the occasion for St. John’s, netting a career-high 28 points and pulling down seven boards. The Long Beach native went 11-of-21 from the floor, including an 8-for-12 effort from inside the arc.
Danielle Cosgrove also put forth a stellar effort for the Johnnies, notching her first collegiate double-double with career-highs of 20 points and 10 boards. The Notre Dame transfer also blocked two shots in 37 minutes of action.
Unique Drake finished in double figures for the fourth straight game, tallying 10 points and matching Bailey with a team-high four assists.
St. John’s assisted on 19 of its 28 made baskets and forced Brown (5-7) into 17 turnovers, but the Red Storm converted those 17 extra possessions into just nine points. The Bears shot 45.0 percent (27-of-60) from the field and went 13-for-14 from the line, including an 11-for-12 effort in the second half. Brown also won the battle on the boards, 42-33.
St. John’s opened the evening’s scoring with back-to-back triples from Cosgrove and Camree Clegg, but Brown battled back to pull within one, 12-11, by the end of the opening period.
Following an Emma Nolan jumper to begin the second quarter, Brown rattled off a 10-3 burst as part of a larger 17-5 run, pulling ahead by nine, 28-19, with 3:27 remaining in the half. The two teams traded buckets the rest of the way before Brown took a 32-24 lead into the locker room.
The Johnnies shot just 25.7 percent from the floor in the first half, including a 3-for-17 effort from beyond the arc.
Brown moved ahead by as many as 14, 50-36, following a 6-0 run midway through the third quarter, but the Red Storm responded with a 7-0 spurt of its own to pull the Johnnies back within seven with just over a minute to play in the period.
Down eight entering the fourth quarter, the Johnnies fell behind by as many as 13, 62-49, following a Mya Murray layup with 7:09 to go. On the following possession, a Bailey layup sparked an 11-2 St. John’s run, pulling the Red Storm within four, 64-60, with 3:48 to go. Bailey scored six of the Johnnies’ 11 points on the spurt.
After climbing within four on a Drake 3-pointer, the Red Storm came up empty on its next three possessions before an Isabella Mauricio triple pushed the Bears’ edge back to seven. Bailey responded with a trey to pull the Johnnies back within four, but an old-fashioned three-point play restored Brown’s seven-point advantage on the following possession. Cosgrove’s third triple of the night cut the deficit to four once again, 70-66, with 30 seconds to play.
Two free throws from Brown’s Maddie Mullin pushed the lead back to six before a Clegg triple made it a one-possession game, 72-69, with eight seconds to go. Another 2-for-2 trip to the line for Brown bumped the lead to five before a Bailey 3-pointer with a second to go closed the gap to two, 74-72. The Red Storm, however, ran out of time, as one final Brown free throw gave the Bears the 75-72 lead with which they would end the game.
St. John’s will return to BIG EAST action on Sunday when it heads to the Finneran Pavilion for a 12 p.m. tilt against Villanova on FS1.
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