Who’s your daddy? No. 22 St. John’s tops New Mexico in battle of the Pitinos

NEW YORK — Father still knows best.
Rick Pitino continued his mastery of his son Richard when No. 22 St. John’s handled New Mexico, 85-71, in the NYC Hoops for Heroes Classic on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
St. John’s fans chanted, “Who’s your daddy?” in the final seconds of the game.
“I was a New York Yankee fan and all I could think of was Pedro Martinez,” Richard Pitino said. “Other than that, I just laughed it off.”
Rick Pitino didn’t seem thrilled with the chants directed at his son, but said, “I was not upset.”
All five St. John’s starters scored in double-figures. RJ Luis went for 21 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists, Seton Hall transfer Kadary Richmond notched 14 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists and Zuby Ejiofor tallied 13 points and 9 boards. Deivon Smith scored 12 of his 15 in the first half, and Aaron Scott scored 14 with 6 rebounds.
The Johnnies improved to 4-0 heading into Thursday’s matchup with No. 12 Baylor in the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship.
The elder Pitino improved to 3-1 against his son, while fathers now lead sons, 19-2, all-time. Richard owns one win over his Hall of Fame father, and the only other time a son was victorious was Ed Diddle in 1958 with Middle Tennessee.
“He handles losing much better than me,” Rick Pitino said with a smile. “I’ve learned to accept it by coming to Queens.”
Rick had said ahead of the game that his wife, Joanne, her sister and best friend would be sitting behind the New Mexico bench rooting for Richard and the Lobos.
“The one that I beat him was the special one, the other three don’t mean anything,” Richard said of playing his dad a fourth time.
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The Red Storm won despite shooting just 4-of-18 from deep because they dominated on the boards (49-32) — including 22 offensive — and on second chance points (25-17).
New Mexico (3-1) owned a win over then-No. 22 UCLA on a neutral court but couldn’t match that intensity and efficiency while playing in a hostile pro St. John’s arena. They seemed nervous and apprehensive at times to start the game.
“Their size and their strength and their physicality really broke us open,” Richard Pitino said.
“That is a team that’s going to sit in the Top 20 all year long, that’s a team that’s going to contend for the Big East title.”
The Red Storm took a 40-29 halftime lead despite shooting 2-of-10 from deep. Smith had 12 points at the break and Luis 7 points and 5 assists.
“I think he’s a legit NBA prospect,” Richard said of Luis.
New Mexico cut it to 63-59 on a layup by Nelly Junior Joseph with 8 minutes remaining.
But Aaron Scott drained a 3-pointer to push it to 66-59.
A nifty pass from Richmond to Scott for a layup pushed it to 72-61
Smith drained a 3 to make it 75-63 for St. John’s.
Luis hit an acrobatic layup off the window to push it to 79-69 with under 2 minutes.
Richard was asked if he thinks his father would ever return the game at New Mexico and said he doubted his father would do it.
“If I go back to Iona in a few years, then we’ll go back to The Pit,” he said with a smile.
The Red Storm will head out to the Bahamas on Tuesday ahead of the Baylor game and will then face either Tennessee or Virginia on Friday and Georgia next Sunday.
“This was our first big test and now we really go in the gauntlet with Baylor, Tennessee and Georgia ,” Rick Pitino said.
He added: “I think we have greatness potential, but we’re not right now. We’re just a good, solid team.”
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media. You may follow him on Twitter @AdamZagoria and check out his Website at ZAGSBLOG.com.