The St. John’s Red Storm dominated the DePaul Blue Demons 82-58 on Wednesday night in Chicago without their star, RJ Luis, who is nursing a hamstring injury.
It was the second-straight win for St. John’s, who keep their perch atop the Big East with a 23-4 overall record and 14-2 conference mark.
From the first whistle to the final buzzer, Rick Pitino’s squad flew all over the court and overwhelmed the Blue Demons. As a team, St. John’s shot 46.4% from the field, an uncharacteristically good 42.9% from behind the arc, and continued their bread-and-butter by turning defense into offense with 19 points off of turnovers.
Over the final eight and a half minutes of the first half, the Johnnies went on a 21-5 run to give themselves a commanding 41-25 lead. They never looked back, as they dominated the second half, outscoring DePaul 41-33.
Stingy defense has been this team’s calling card, but rebounding and dominating in the paint has fueled its run to the top seed in the conference. St. John’s out-rebounded DePaul 45-29 and scored 34 points in the paint compared to DePaul’s 16.
Coming into the game, the Johnnies had shot just 29.3% from three-point land and averaged roughly 20 threes attempted per game. Over the last three games, including this win over DePaul, St. John’s has shot 34.2% from behind the arc on 76 attempted shots and just over 25 attempted threes per game over that span.
Pitino could be trying to add another facet to this team, to make them that much more dominant come March. If they can continue to play the lockdown defense they’ve played all season, along with dominating the paint and the glass and then adding the ability to shoot the three-ball over 30% of the time, they’d be poised to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
With four games left on the program’s schedule — two of which are against two of the top-four teams in the conference — St. John’s has set themselves up nicely to be the No. 1 seed heading into the Big East Tournament.
Deivon Smith and Kadary Richmond both reached double figures, as the duo combined for 35 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists.
Heading into the contest, Sadiku Ibine Ayo had 20 points on the season, but managed to have 13 in this game alone. He added five rebounds and two assists to his stat line, as well.
The Johnnies’ season-leading scorer, Luis, was questionable for the game with a strained groin, per Zach Braziller of the New York Post. He suited up but never made an appearance. It’s believed that the injury isn’t anything to be concerned about.
During the postgame press conference, Pitino gave two injury updates: Richmond has been dealing with a groin injury for quite some time and he “doubts” Luis will play Sunday against UConn.
St. John’s is back in action on Sunday against UConn at Madison Square Garden. Tip-off is set for noon ET.
