St. John’s Struggles Late, Loses to Kansas 95-75

In the first ever basketball game UBS Arena, St. John’s turned a double-digit deficit into a one-possession game before Kansas loudly slammed the door, 95-75.

One might have expected this game to come down to which team imposed their pace. Coming into the game, St. John’s ranked 4th in the country with 79 possessions per game while Kansas ranked 181st with 71.3 possessions per game.

Despite the game being played at St. John’s pace for most of the first half, each team finished with at least 73 possessions with the much more methodical Jayhawks determining the pace late.

In the first half, outside of the first four minutes or so, St. John’s kept up effectively with Kansas. The Jayhawks went…