When you really think about it, this is the way this game had to go, right? St. John’s had plastered Seton Hall by 28 last time, when the two teams played at Prudential Center back in January. And the Pirates have had a rough year, trying to patch together a strain of respectability while losing 22 games. 

But the Johnnies have gotten where they are because of grit far more often than glamor. Rick Pitino says time and again that the thing he admires most about the team is its humility, its collective understanding that nothing is given, that everything is earned, even when it’s the top of the Big East against the bottom. 

Even with a first outright conference championship in 40 years on the line, and with one more full house — 19,812 strong — urging them on with every ounce of strength in 19,812 larynxes and voice boxes. 

So it stood to reason that the Pirates would get after the Red Storm as much as they could, that the Hall would lead with its chin. It was right that it took until the last five or six minutes of the game for the Johnnies to finally start to pull away at last, put the finishing touches on a 71-61 win that earned them the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament.