St. John's Comes Back To Outlast Rutgers In Charity Exhibition

 

Simeon Wilcher goes up for a layup on Thursday night. @StJohnsBBall.

The St. John's Red Storm beat No. 25 Rutgers, 91-85, on Thursday night, the second straight year they have been them in a charity exhibition game in support of the Dick Vitale Pediatric Cancer Research Fund and the V Foundation.

St. John's trailed 44-36 at halftime and by as many as 11 points before a second half in which they shot 57.1 percent (20-35) from the field.

Zuby Ejiofor led St. John's with 27 points on 12-20 from the field, including 1-4 from behind the arc, with 13 rebounds and an assist. The forward scored 19 of his 27 points in the second half, as he made nine of his 11 shot attempts, and his lone three-pointer came at a critical moment.

RJ Luis Jr. had 22 points on 6-9 from the field, including 2-2 on threes plus 8-13 from the free throw line, with six rebounds and three assists. Simeon Wilcher had 15 points (5-11 FG, 1-2 threes), six rebounds (3 defensive, 3 offensive), and three assists.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: "What you want to get out of an exhibition game is a tough game. It's a road environment and I couldn't be prouder of our guys. In the first half, we didn't move the basketball or get out and run our break. We were just trying to dribble too much. In the second half, we started passing the ball, moving the ball, cutting, and it was a thing of beauty to watch. So real proud of our guys, my man here [Zuby Ejiofor], they said when I first got him that, you know, he's just a 12-foot player, and he's a little bit limited in what he can do, and I think you see what he can do. 27 points, 13 rebounds, only one turnover. I was trying to get him to pop out more and take open threes. He made one, and he said he wanted to keep his percentage up so he wouldn't take anymore. And RJ [Luis Jr.] learned a lot of valuable lessons tonight himself because when he moves without the basketball, he's lethal. He's a lethal passer, he's unguardable. He's a great offensive rebounder, just as good a player as I've coached. He's a tremendous young man and tremendous player, and this was a great win for us, because to come back on the road, I wanted to see the character of our basketball team, and I saw it tonight, and I'm real proud of that.

On the depth of this team: “Yeah, I think Deivon (Smith) is going to be terrific. He's just got to learn a lot of little things about the position. But he's got great talent, and I'm talking about little things like spacing and not picking up his dribble when he sees pressure with that type of speed. Take the five men on, try to draw the foul. Once he learned those things, I think it's not going to be a problem, but Kadary [Richmond] is a great, great basketball player. All his shots tonight were exactly the way I wanted him to shoot it. It was on the right-hand side with no hitch, so I'm happy with that as well. But one of the big keys in the game, besides our offensive movement, was the fact that we had nine turnovers in the first half and only turned it over twice in the second half. Thus we shot a percentage of 57% from two, 50 percent from three, and it was a totally different basketball team once they got the feel of each other. I think this team's got a very high ceiling. We have to do now is we got to develop our backup fives, and once we develop that, I think we'll be a much better basketball team. We've got to develop both Ruben [Prey] as well as Vince [Iwuchuckwu], because he's he played so hard. He was amazing tonight. Truly amazing.”

On what he liked from his team in this game: “I think the adjustments that they made from first half to second half. I think that's a big adjustment. I think RJ learned a lot. I think Deivon learned a lot. I think all the guys learned. What we're trying to do right now is just mesh with everybody, get to know each other, so they know the cuts, like RJ made a great baseline cut. I thought he was going to bank it in, but he shot it straight in. He'll make his free throws. He changed it a little bit with too much arc, but he gets fouled all the time. He's a great offensive rebounder.”

On Simeon Wilcher: “[Simeon Wilcher] played great. You know what I love about Sim? Sim was playing really well, but I went with Deivon because I wanted to just get him some experience in a tough game, because he's got a lot to learn. Deivon's got a lot to learn about the position. Sim would have been a better choice in certain positions, but I wanted him to learn certain things, and he did learn. But the best part about Sim is he comes in and, he didn't play, he just kept saying, ‘we only have two turnovers in the second half’. That's awesome and that's what Sim is all about. Sim is already is a great player, but I've got a lot of great players in this team, a lot. It's not just the two guys here.”

 

On the advantage of playing tough exhibition games…

“Yeah, at that point we're trying to win the game. I think college exhibitions are a lot different than the NBA. This was important because we booked Rutgers on the road and Towson. Rutgers is highly ranked and Towson picked to win the league. We wanted to because we weren't ready early in the year last year, so we wanted to play to win in the second half. We wanted to get everybody in the first half but play to win in the second half.”