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TRY IT NOWMILWAUKEE — Kadary Richmond joined select company Saturday.
A St. John’s player to produce a triple-double.
The last one, by Ron Artest (now Metta Sandiford-Artest), came on Jan. 9, 1999.
“It means a lot to me and my teammates,” Richmond said after sixth-ranked St. John’s thrilling 86-84 overtime victory over No. 20 Marquette at Fiserv Forum. “We’ve been doing historic things all season, so this time it’s an individual one. But I’ll give it all to them. They made shots, they made the big plays.”
In 42 minutes, Richmond had 10 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, four steals and only two turnovers.
His shot was off — he was just 5-for-13 from the field — but he was brilliant otherwise.
His biggest play was a steal.
After RJ Luis Jr. missed a 3-pointer in the final seconds of overtime, Richmond tipped the ball out of Chase Ross’ hands.
Simeon Wilcher retrieved the carom and fed Zuby Ejiofor for the game-winning shot at the buzzer.
“I think he was fatigued and he fought through the fatigue,” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said of his star senior guard. “Made big plays down the stretch.”
The Hall of Fame coach added: “Easiest great player I’ve coached by far. He owns up to everything, he listens, he’s highly intelligent. It’s always about his teammates, never about him. First triple-double [for a St. John’s player] since Ron Artest and he won’t even pat himself on the back one bit. That type of humility in today’s generation is something to be proud of.”
Wilcher enjoyed his best game in weeks, producing 13 points, three assists and a block in 41 minutes. He had a bigger role with Deivon Smith (right shoulder) out and came through.
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“I thought ‘Sim’ was great tonight,” Pitino said. “He did give up Kam [Jones’] left hand too much defensively. He was just trying to stay out of foul trouble because he knew we couldn’t afford foul trouble. … I thought Sim had by far the best practice of all the guys [on Friday].”
Freshman Lefteris Liotopoulos received a season-high 16 minutes and scored six points and added two rebounds off the bench.
St. John’s 27 regular-season wins matches a program record set by the 1985-86 team.