New York, NY – Wednesday night time at Madison Sq. Backyard, St. John’s, (13-7, 5-4) in convincing vogue, accomplished their first season sweep of Villanova (11-8, 4-4) in 31 years. Johnnie’s middle Joel Soriano returned to kind main all scorers with 21 factors, en path to a 70-50 victory. Villanova’s main scorers have been seniors Eric Dixon with 16 factors, and TJ Bamba with 12 factors.
St. John’s conceded the primary a number of baskets, however responded shortly to reclaim the lead the remainder of the night time. The Crimson Storm outplayed Villanova throughout most sides of the sport, leaving little question concerning the final result. They stifled the Wildcats for his or her lowest scoring complete of the 12 months, holding them to 4-of-25 from 3, and 37% from the sphere. Their elite defensive strain pressured Villanova to expend numerous vitality stepping into their half-court units, consequently scoring 18 factors off 11 turnovers.
Offensively this wasn’t top-of-the-line performances from their standard suspects, Daniss Jenkins and RJ Luis Jr. They mixed to shoot 6-of-21, with Coach Pitino visibly upset at RJ’s shot choice. It wouldn’t make a distinction, as Soriano and the bench would offer loads of buckets. Soriano had his first 20-point outing since going to Villanova earlier this month. His peak and coronary heart has been an excessive amount of for the 6’8 Dixon to deal with, as he closed the sport with 15 of his 21 factors within the second half. Soriano was scorching from mid-range, and Jenkins helped free him up for some simple possibilities on the rim. After capturing 46% from the sphere throughout their 3-game skid, Soriano solely missed one subject objective all the night time going 8-of-9.Jordan Dingle and Glenn Taylor Jr. have been the primary scoring contributors off the bench. Dingle went 6-of-8 contained in the arc for 12 factors and Taylor Jr. pitched in one other 9 factors as the 2 mixed for 21 of the 26 bench factors. Dingle missed the final 2 video games attributable to sickness, and his absence was felt in a giant means. He’d go on to submit 4 assists and 4 rebounds as properly in his first return to sport motion.
St. John’s is without doubt one of the nation’s greatest rebounding groups and dominated the glass Wednesday like most nights. Villanova was outrebounded 42-23, restricted to few second probability factors. St. John’s feasted on the offensive glass too, grabbing practically as many offensive rebounds (15) as Nova had defensive rebounds (18). These 15 offensive boards led to 17 second probability factors for the Johnnies. Soriano had a game-high 9 complete rebounds, and the Johnnies had six gamers complete at the least 4 boards.
Villanova regardless of all of the struggles, they solely had a 32-22 halftime deficit. Bamba and Dixon willed their group again into the sport with 13 of Nova’s 15 factors within the second half to chop the lead down to 5 factors with 12 minutes to go. Pitino known as for a 30 second timeout, and St. John’s would end the sport on a 30-15 run. Villanova failed to shut that hole with continued inefficient capturing, and lack of a presence on the glass. Outdoors of Bamba and Dixon, no different participant shot above 33% from the sphere. Dixon had eight of their 23 rebounds. Mark Armstrong had three turnovers and was -17 in his 25 minutes because the lead guard for the Wildcats.
Villanova is reeling proper now dropping their third straight and 4-of-5 video games, after successful their first three video games in convention play. It appears like issues are snowballing for them, and questions nonetheless stay if Kyle Neptune is the appropriate man to observe the legacy Jay Wright left behind, as he now has a 44-41 document in his teaching profession. They’re now sixth within the Massive East and sinking heading right into a must-win matchup on the street towards Butler on Saturday the twenty seventh.
St. John’s have been losers of three straight heading into this sport, most not too long ago dropping a nail-biter to #17 Marquette by a mere level on this similar venue. This was a vital sport they wanted to have in the event that they need to play within the event this 12 months. The complete group absolutely purchased in to Coach Rick Pitino’s keys to victory, protection and rebounding. It was a collective effort and was considered one of their most cohesive video games performed as a group. Subsequent up for St. John’s is a January thirty first street matchup towards Xavier (10-9, 4-4).
This text was written by Justin Maldonado, a correspondent and scout for NetScouts Basketball. You possibly can observe us on Fb, or on twitter.
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