St. John's Crushes Creighton With "The best defense we played all season," Per Pitino

 

Dylan Darling looking up at the hoop as the ball goes in on his layup that made it 57-36 St. John's with 12:21 remaining. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm cruised past Creighton, 81-52, on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

This was the 13th straight win for first-place St. John's, who is now 15-1 in Big East Conference play, and 22-5 overall.

The win has some significance for the fact that Creighton won at Connecticut on Wednesday night, 91-84, which enabled St. John's to pass the Huskies for the top spot in the Big East. Creighton is now 14-14 overall, including 8-9 in Big East play.

With the win, St. John's guarantees that they will remain in first place heading into Monday's announcement of the national rankings. This past week, St. John's was No. 17 in the AP Top 25 and No. 16 in the USA Today Coaches' Poll this past week, while UConn was No. 5. Since St. John's not only took first place, but beat a common opponent whom UConn lost to, it stands to reason the Red Storm should pass them, even if it means they slot in at No. 9 and UConn in tenth.

It's a funny thing to say for a team that hasn't lost in 49 days, but this was arguably St. John's most complete performance of the season.

St. John's sent the message immediately, as they raced out to an 8-0 lead, capped by a Bryce Hopkins fast break layup in the paint at the 18:18 mark. (pictured below)

St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino, with his hands behind his back, watches Bryce Hopkins take it to the hoop to make it 8-0. Photo by Jason Schott.

That was just the start, as the Red Storm would soon be up 16-4 on a Joson Sanon three-pointer at the 15:42 mark.

The Red Storm had a comfortable lead for most of the first half, with Creighton pulling within five, 28-23, at the 6:54 mark, and St. John's responded with a quick 6-1 run to get it back to 10. 

St. John's took a 42-27 lead into halftime, backed by a 51.7 percent, or 15-29 shooting performance, the second straight game they shot north of 50 percent, quickly making their slow starts a distant memory.

The thing about Wednesday night's win against Marquette was they flipped the script and took a while to get going in the second half.

That happened again in this one, as they were held scoreless for the first three minutes and two seconds of the final 20 minutes. Unlike Marquette, who had taken the lead before St. John's stormed back, Creighon was only able to score five points in that span, so they only got back to within 10, at 42-32, before St. John's went on an 11-2 run to go up 53-34 at the 13:56 mark.

Just over five minutes later, St. John's would take an astonishing 31-point lead, at 69-38, on a pair of Darling free throws at the 8:31 mark.

The Red Storm didn't let up, and that lead got as high as 33 points when Sadike Ibine Ayo blocked one, and after Lefteris Liotopoulos snatched the rebound, Ibine Ayo laid it in on a fast break to make it 77-44 with 2:22 left.

Creighton was held to just 26.9 percent shooting, or 7-26, in the second half, putting up just 25 points, a tick lower than the 27 they had in the opening stanza in which they shot 37 percent (10-27) from the field. That gave them a 32.1 % mark for the game, in which they shot 17-53.

St. John's was led, once again, by Dylan Darling, who had 17 points off the bench on 5-7 shooting, including 1-3 on three-pointers and 6-8 at the free throw line.

Dylan Darling holding the pose on this jumper that put St. John's up 39-27 with 2:45 left in the first half. Photo by Jason Schott.

Bryce Hopkins and Zuby Ejiofor had 15 points apiece, with Hopkins adding 10 rebounds to notch a double-double, along with two assists and two steals, while Zuby had three rebounds, two assists, and two blocks.

Dylan Mitchell had a superb line as well, as he had six points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, and a steal. Oziyah Sellers had 10 points, two rebounds, two steals, and an assist.

PITINO POSTGAME: St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino addressed the media after the game, and he opened with this statement: "Well, first, the Big Bells Award could have gone to anybody tonight but we had our first time. These two guys (Dillon Mitchell and Dylan Darling) could when it but it went to Bryce (Hopkins) and (Handje) Tomba for that sweet move in the lane. This was the best defense we played all season. The guys were totally locked in because of their respect for Creighton and their ability to score. There were so many times where we almost got the shot clock down to twenty-four seconds, which is awesome defense the entire night. This is a very good shooting team, a very good motion team, and they shot thirty-two percent (overall) and twenty-seven percent (on three-pointers), and that's outstanding defense."

On the team playing off Dillon Mitchell: "He is a summa cum laude basketball player...If you have to get a rebound in the game, he's the guy that's going to get it. Seven assists, zero turnovers, ten rebounds, a steal. He's just a great basketball player."

On the coaching staff preparing the team: "(Steve Masiello) is one of the best scouts that I've ever had, and I've had some great ones, including my son, who was terrific. But Mas is great, Bob (Walsh) is great, Ricky (Johns) and Taliek (Brown) are great. Our staff is doing a phenomenal job of getting the guys (ready). It's one thing to be a great scout and break it down, but it's getting the players to listen to every little detail, and they're listening to every little detail. I'm proud of them for that."