St. John’s Takes Care Of Towson In Preseason Finale

RJ Luis Jr. drives the lane. @StJohnsBball.

The St. John's Red Storm closed the preseason with a solid 64-46 win over Towson at Carnesecca Arena on Saturday afternoon. 

RJ Luis Jr., one of St. John's returning stars, led the way, as he poured in 11 points (4-11 FG, 0-2 threes, 3-4 FT), eight rebounds (four apiece on offense and defense), four steals, and an assist in 22 minutes off the bench.

Unlike their other preseason game at Rutgers last week, when Head Coach Rick Pitino used what is assumed to be their starting five, in this one he set out to see what he has on his bench.

Forwards Aaron Scott, Brady Dunlap, and Vincent Iwuchukwu, plus guards Deivon Smith and Jaiden Glover formed the starting lineup. 

Scott matched Luis Jr. with 11 points on 3-5 shooting, with all made shots three-pointers, and five rebounds, and a steal in 24 minutes. Iwuchukwu had eight points (3-5 FG, 0-1 three-pointers), a rebound, and a steal in 15 minutes. Dunlap, a recognizable name last season, had six points on 2-3 shooting, all from behind the arc, two rebounds, two steals, and one assist in 16 minutes. Smith had four points (2-6 FG, 0-4 threes), five rebounds, two assists, and two rebounds in 18 minutes. Glover had two points (both free throws as he shot 0-4), a rebound, and an assist in 16 minutes.

St. John's commences the regular season against New York City rival Fordham on Monday, November 4 at 6:30 p.m. Carnesecca Arena.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino also addressed these topics with the media after the game, including his opening statement: “We played well against Rutgers, but this was a much better performance. We knew we scheduled two different types of teams. Towson, pace-wise, is one of the slower teams in the country. They're also one of the better defensive teams in the country, sort of like a Seton Hall-type team, and we wanted to be the better defensive team against an outstanding defensive team. And we certainly did a lot of great things defensively. We rotated well, we stopped the ball, we challenged shots, we just didn't block out well, and that was the only negative from the defensive standpoint. But when you hold the team to 28.8% from the field, 21.7% from three and force 25 turnovers, you're really playing great defense, and that's what we wanted to get out of this game. We've been working about 75% of our practices just with man defense. One of the reasons we weren't ready last year, at the beginning of the year, we weren't very good defensively, so we learned a valuable lesson. Today, we came away with an outstanding defensive performance. I also wanted to play guys that I haven't seen in games to see what they can do getting ready for [the season opener against] Fordham, and I didn't care about playing starters too much because I know what they can do.”

 

On being able to play a scrappy, defensive game: “That's what you have to do. Towson is a very well-coached team, very good defensively, very physical, and we got a lot out of playing against them, so it was really, really good for us today.”

 

On Vince Iwuchukwu’s improvement: “He’s really improving offensively. The one thing he's not doing is being a quick rebounder, reacting quickly to go get the ball, and that's what he has to do. His post-game is good. His touch is good. Shoots good free throws. He's just got to be a quicker twitch on the glass. He goes about a second or two late on his jump. But we see tremendous improvement in him.”

 

On testing the team’s depth against Towson: “Well, I wanted to see what Vince [Iwuchukwu] has. I wanted to see what Jaiden [Glover] has. I wanted to give [Lefteris Liotopoulos] a chance and Ruben [Prey] to play, just to see who can be part of our rotation, who can play against Fordham.”

 

On the development of the team’s big men: “Ruben [Prey] is the better five-man on the perimeter and [Vince Iwuchukwu] is better inside. Ruben's a very good European player, he knows how to pass, he knows how to move. So, I have confidence in both of them now, and I found that out today. The last two practices, we've had the white team, the team that you saw start, dominate the starters by four and 30 points. Just routed them the other day. So I wanted to see them because it was so impressive in practice the last two days.“