St. John's In First AP Poll Of Season; Marathon With Rutgers

 

Ruben Prey wins the opening tip for St. John's on Sunday afternoon. Photo by Jason Schott.

The St. John's Red Storm earned a spot in the AP Preseason Top 25 Poll, coming in at No. 13 - the sixth highest ranking in the poll ahead of the season in school history.

This is the second straight season they have made the preseason poll, and it comes after the Red Storm were in 16 of the 20 polls published throughout last season.

It is the first time they St. John's has made it in back-to back seasons since 1990-91 and '91-92, when Lou Carnesecca was still at the helm.

St. John's has been ranked 15 times in the preseason poll in school history.

 

Quinn Ellis buried a pair of free throws late in Sunday's game against Rutgers. Photo by Jason Schott.

St. John's 104, Rutgers 99 (4 OTs) - Preseason:

On Sunday afternoon, St. John's played Rutgers in a preseason game and it certainly didn't feel meaningless as they battled for 60 minutes of action, three hours and 15 minutes in real time.

The Red Storm started off well, but the Scarlet Knights surged to take a 46-28 lead into halftime.

In the second half, St. John's flipped the script, as they shot 53.6 percent, or 15-28, while holding Rutgers to just 21.9%, or 7-32, to outpace them, 43-25, to send the game to overtime tied at 71.

Then, the game turned into a defensive battle, as each team scored just five points in the first overtime, then amped it up to score 13 apiece in the second and five again in the third overtime.

In the fourth overtime, St. John's was able to pull away in the end, outscoring them 10-5 to notch the 104-99 win.

The stats on this game were mindblowing, staring with Keyshawn Ellis and Ian Jackson leading St. John's with 24 points apiece. Ellis shot 6-15 from the field, including 2-6 on three-pointers and a perfect 10-10 on free throws, with 14 rebounds and three assists in 53 minutes. Jackson shot 8-17 overall, with 2-7 on three-pointers, five rebounds, and three assists in 49 minutes.

St. John's forward Quinn Ellis led St. John's with 56 minutes, as he notched 13 points (4-9 FG, 1-3 threes), with nine assists, eight rebounds, and two steals.

St. John's Head Coach Rick Pitino said of the game, "Learned a lot because we made so many mistakes. As I said all fall, fundamentally, we're not a good basketball team. We make a lot of mistakes, we haven't played together. We took a lot of guys that - good offensive players, not good defensive players, so they've got to learn all that. We've been out-rebounded quite a bit almost all situations we're in, including practice, so we're going to learn a lot from this.

"They have a lot of good 1-on-1 players. Our defense was better in the second half, but we've got a long way to go. I'm not sure we're going to be ready for the likes of Arizona (on December 5th) or (tournament in) Las Vegas, but we've just got to hold steady, win as many basketball games as we can because, come January, we'll be a much better basketball team...

"They're a great group. I didn't expect to play the second exhibition game four overtimes, but what I kept telling the guys, 'look, you get to play four overtimes at Madison Square Garden, pretty damn good!' They're exhausted, Rutgers deserves a lot of credit, it was a hell of a fight, and we made some good plays down the stretch, so we'll improve."

Rutgers was led by Tariq Francis,who had 24 points on 10-26 from the field, including 2-11 on threes, with six rebounds and two assists in 47 minutes.

Two other Rutgers players - Christian Gurdak and Darin Smith Jr. - also came in around 47 minutes, with none of their players surpassing 50 minutes.