St. John's Takes Top Spot In Big East With Historic D

 

Zuby Ejiofor slamming one home. @StJohnsBBall.

The St. John's Red Storm rolled to a dominant win across the river on Saturday night, 79-51, over the Seton Hall Pirates at the Prudential Center.

This was St. John's fifth straight win, and 11th in their last 12 games, and it gives them an overall record of 16-3 and a record of 7-1 in Big East play, now the best in the conference.

St. John's leapfrogged Marquette, who lost to Xavier, 59-57, and their first Big East loss left them with a conference record of 6-1.

This one was all St. John's from the jump, as they opened up a 26-7 lead on the way to a halftime lead of 39-16.

That was the lowest points the Red Storm allowed in a first half since they held another Jersey school, Rutgers, to just 14 points on February 6, 2008.

Seton Hall shot just 13.3 percent, or 4-30, from the field, including 1-8 from behind the arc, plus they were only 7-13 from the free throw line in the anemic first half.

The closest Seton Hall got in the second half was 16 points on a  couple of occasions, otherwise St. John's maintained a 20-point edge throughout the final 20 minutes.

The Red Storm led by as many as 32 points, at 79-47, when RJ Luis Jr. slammed one home after a Hall turnover with 1:40 remaining.

St. John's shot 50 percent (14-28) in the second half, and 46.7%, or 28-60, for the game. They also shot 38.9 percent, 7-18, from the three-point line, a noted improvement from some recent outings, and really the only facet of their game in need of improvement.

Once again, RJ Luis Jr. led the way for St. John's, as he had 24 points on 9-13 from the field, including 4-5 from behind the arc, with eight rebounds, four assists, and two steals.

Zuby Ejiofor had 15 points (4-9 FG, 7-8 FT), with nine rebounds. Kadary Richmond, in his return to Newark, had 12 points (5-7 FG), six assists, five rebounds, and two steals. Aaron Scott had 10 points on 3-8 from the field, including 2-6 from behind the arc, with eight rebounds and three steals. Jaiden Glover had seven points (3-3 FG, 1-1 threes), with one rebounds in 10:22 off the bench.

St. John's next game will be on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. at Madison Square Garden against Xavier.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: "That was the best New Year's Eve gift I could have gotten, the defense in the first half. That was a brilliant performance of team defense. We have been really working on that, and the guys had each other's back. When you get people to shoot 13 percent from the field, 12 percent from three, you are just playing remarkable defense. I'm real proud of our guys, it was a terrific win. Kadary had a beautiful homecoming, RJ was brilliant as well. We are very excited about the win, we know we have a tough one coming up on Wednesday."

On playing Deivon Smith despite his injury: "I wasn't going to play him because he said he couldn't shoot, and he said, 'Coach, I want to go.' He said that to me and I was surprised. The trainer and I both made a decision that he would play, but I thought it'd be good for him to get out there and run because he hasn't practiced and play a little bit. I'll set him up for Wednesday's game."

On his mindset being in first place in the Big East: "I really don't think about it. I'm just consumed with the next game. I think we're playing great defense right now. I think we're doing a lot of good things on the break. I'm just enjoying each practice, each game. I really don't think too much of that. I'm proud for the St. John's fans. I know it means something to them, but to me, it means very little."

On the fan support at Prudential Center: "St. John's fans are coming back. We're trying to make them join our team one by one. Whether it's the streets in New York, we don't care where they come from. One by one, we're trying to cultivate our fan base, because St. John's lost a big fan base in the last 20 years, a lot of subway alumni, and we're trying to get it back, and we're doing it one by one."

On what it takes to win on the road in the Big East: "I think to win a Big East road game, you have to be a good defensive team, and we're a good defensive team, and we're getting better and better at that. If you're not a really good defensive team, I don't care what league you're in, you're not going to win on the road. We got to be great defensively to win on the road."