St. John's Dashes Past Delaware

 

Simeon Wilcher laying one in to put St. John's ahead 9-8, and they never trailed after that. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm made the most of their holiday weekend game at Carnesecca Arena, as they had a dominant win over Delaware, 97-76, on Saturday night.

It didn't take long for the Red Storm, who are now 11-2 on the season, to take over this game, as they held a 27-15 lead on a Deivon Smith three-pointer at the 10:06 mark of the first half. (pictured below). 

Photo by Jason Schott.

That lead would balloon to 23 points, at 44-21, on a Zuby Ejiofor free throws with 3:02 left before the half, when they held a 48-29 edge. 

St. John's shot 54.5 percent, or 18-33, from the field, in the first half, including 62.5 percent (5-8) on three-pointers.

That only continued in the second half, when the Red Storm put up 49 points on 67.7 percent (21-31) shooting, and they made three out of four chances from behind the arc.

St. John's was led by Deivon Smith, with 20 points on 8-14 from the field, including 4-5 from behind the arc, with 13 rebounds to give him a double-double, eight assists, and three steals.

RJ Luis Jr. had 16 points on a superb 7-9 form the field, with three assists, off the bench. Zuby Ejiofor also had 16 points (5-8 FG), with seven rebounds and three assists. Simeon Wilcher had 12 points (4-9 FG, 2-3 threes), with two steals and a rebound.  Vincent Iwuchukwu had 11 points (5-6 FG), with two rebounds and a block, in 10:45 off the bench.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: “Well, obviously anytime you win you should be pleased, but to be honest with you, I'm anything but pleased. I think sometimes when you're getting ready for your next opponent, being Creighton, you don't get as focused because this next game is coming up. We did a lot of good things on offense, but we really didn't do the things defensively in the second half. As you can see, they shot 58 percent. Let's give credit to number two, [John] Camden. We knew he was a great 3-point shooter, but he does more than 3-point shooting. He's just an outstanding basketball player. He does it all. He plays the five a little bit for them, but he's really a four-man. Terrific basketball player. We wanted to take away his three and he was 9-for-11. Give him credit, 35 points, four assists and three steals. Wonderful performance.”

On reflecting on the non-conference schedule: “I think we did our job. I don't think we're near our potential, which is a good thing, not a bad thing. But I think we have to get better defensively. It's just guys understanding personnel. If I had to point out our biggest weakness, obviously free-throw shooting is glaring, but I think our biggest weakness is absorbing the scouting report. Guys from winning programs that come back know how important college scouting is. It's much more important than in the NBA. Every single thing, from out-of-bounds plays to press offenses, is important and we're struggling with that a little bit. The other area we are doing a good job in is passing the ball. I think Deivon has picked up his game to Zuby’s level, which is great. He's really playing hard and if we can get the rest of the pack to join in at those levels, from an intensity standpoint, it'd be great.”

On Deivon Smith and Vince Iwuchukwu: “I mean, anytime a point guard gets 13 rebounds, pushes the pace and forces everybody to run, that's really a strong suit. I thought that our center is really improving and Vince, now he gave up some threes, but he's not used to guarding a three-point shooter at the five spot like that. But, in the low post, he's really improving his game. We're going to need him for Creighton, certainly.”

On playing on the road: “We played really well on the road last year. We lost at the buzzer on a tough call last year at Creighton. We lost a tough call at UConn. We were a pretty good road team. If this team can get to where last year's team was at the end of the year, with this type of talent, we will be a tough team come March.”

On Jaiden Glover: “[Jaiden] has no fear, and that's what I love about him. He has no fear as a freshman. He goes in there and he wants a dunk on somebody, wants to score on somebody, but he's got to learn to do the other things. He's got to rebound the basketball, he's got to get a couple of steals. He's got to do other things, which he will learn. But I have a lot of confidence in playing him in BIG EAST play, and he will play.”

COMING TO AMERICA NIGHT: Saturday was also Coming to America Night at Carnesecca Arena.

Photo by Jason Schott.

It was held on the anniversary of when Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall filmed a scene for the iconic Queens-based movie, as they took in a St. John's game against Marist at Madison Square Garden on December 28, 1987.

One of the features of the night was that facts from the film were showed on the board during the game, as seen below.