St. John’s falls to Butler after Joel Soriano’s would-be tying shot comes after buzzer

An already disappointing season just took another turn for the worse for St. John’s on Tuesday night in a crushing 68-66 lo🌠ss to Butler at Hinkle Fieꦅldhouse in Indianapolis — after the Red Storm thought they had tied the score at the buzzer.

With eight-tenths of a second remaining and St. John’s down two, ༒Posh Alexander, who was inbounding the ba𒊎ll from behind the Red Storm’s basket, threw a lob pass to Joel Soriano, who apparently made the layup to tie the score.

But after a review, it was determined Soriano’s shot cam🥂e after the buzzer, sending an irate St. John’s coach Mike Anderson into a tizzy as he argued with the officials, to no avail.

The Red Storm (14-11, 4-10 Big East) had chances to close out the game before the controversial call. They held a 66-61 lead with 3:02 remaining, but failed to score the rest of the way as Butler scored the final seven point🐽s of the game.

Alexander finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and six assists to lead the Red Storm, who have lost three straight and five of their last six games. Rafael Pinzon scored 14 and Soriano chipped in 11 to go along with 12 rℱebounds and two steal💧s for St. John’s.

Jayden Taylor led the Bulldogs (12-13, 4-10 Big East) with 19 points, despite going just 1 for 5 from 3-point range, while Manny Bates chipped in with 15. Taylor had 13 of his points in the second half.

St. John’s, who has just seven regular season games remaining, play host to No. 20 Providence on Saturday at 12 p.m. on Fox. Butler’s next game is against Big East leader Xavier at home.