It has been a season-long mantra from Rick Pitino.
St. John’s isn’t good enough defensively, and it would take time for it to improve in the area.
It’s not happening fast enough.
The Johnnies’ defense let them down early and often on Sunday, leading to an ugly 86-80 loss to Boston College at Barclays Center in the NABC Brooklyn Showcase.
St. John’s couldn’t guard the ball.
It couldn’t keep the Eagles off the free-throw line. And it dropped a bad one to a team picked to finish near the bottom of the ACC.
St. John’s was outscored 25-14 over the final 7:39, as Boston College shot 55.6 percent from the field and attempted 28 free throws.
The Red Storm led 66-61 with 7:56 to play, but was overwhelmed down the stretch, similar to the loss to Dayton in the Charleston Classic.
Joel Soriano led St. John’s with 21 points and 11 rebounds, but rarely touched the ball over the final 10 minutes, and Chris Ledlum added 16 and 11.
Five Boston College players scored in double figures, led by Quinten Post’s near triple-double of 14 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists.
St. John’s was fortunate to trail by just two at the half after 20 minutes of mostly matador defense.
Boston College, which led by as many as six, didn’t just shoot 52.9 percent from the field. Of the Eagles’ 18 made field goals, 12 were layups.
The Johnnies were torched by Boston College’s motion offense, with Post finding guards for one backdoor cut after another.
Even when St. John’s got stops, it didn’t finish those possessions, allowing 15 second-chance points.
Ledlum was St. John’s best player in the opening half, producing 12 points and five rebounds.
He shot 6 of 13 from the field while his teammates were 8-for-32.
Daniss Jenkins was limited to nine minutes due to foul trouble and Jordan Dingle missed six of his seven shots.
Soriano had seven points and seven rebounds, but was a step slow defensively against the quicker Post, who spent most of the time on the perimeter.
St. John’s started the second half extremely well, ripping off a 14-0 run to build the game’s biggest lead of 10. Soriano was instrumental, scoring eight of those points.
At one juncture, St. John’s scored eight points in 34 seconds.
The momentum didn’t last.
After a timeout, Boston College answered with a 13-2 spurt to go ahead that coincided with some iffy possessions in which St. John’s settled for long, contested jumpers.
The Eagles kept coming, going ahead by five after freshman Brady Dunlap’s turnover led to a Prince Aligbe dunk with 10:20 left.
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