New York, NY – St. John’s (16-12) had considered one of their greatest collective performances this season on Sunday to snap #15 ranked Creighton’s (20-8) 4 recreation win streak, with an 80-66 victory at Madison Sq. Backyard. The Johnnies staved off each comeback push the Blue Jays tried with relentless protection and regular scoring from the senior beginning backcourt of Jordan Dingle and Daniss Jenkins combining for 45 factors. Trey Alexander scored a season-high 31 factors within the loss for the Blue Jays.
Creighton made a 10-0 run to take the lead again within the first half 25-24 when St. John’s went to their reserves. Alexander kickstarted issues with back-to-back threes. Trey discovered a whole lot of success on offense over the course of this matchup. He was dominant navigating decide and rolls, routinely placing defenders on his again as he snaked heart Ryan Kalkbrenner’s screens, resulting in a number of mid-range pull up jumpshots. Kalkbrenner would do his greatest “Gortat” display to present Trey as a lot respiration room, and concurrently place himself for second likelihood factors. Kalkbrenner was their defensive centerpiece, tallying a career-high eight blocks. His huge size gave St. John’s matches they usually paid the value not respecting it. He didn’t get a lot resistance within the put up both, getting deep within the paint proper into an environment friendly comfortable hook. Creighton ought to’ve sought extra methods to feed it to him, as he solely completed with 12 factors on 11 pictures.
Creighton struggled to create open appears to be like from the perimeter, resulting in a extremely inefficient 6-of-26 from deep. Baylor Scheierman hit the primary three of the sport earlier than going ice chilly. He’d go 1-of-10 exterior the arc and 4-of-16 from the sector. Steven Ashworth, who was scorching over the course of their successful streak, went 1-of-6 from deep this contest. The Blue Jays got here into this recreation sixth in 3-pointers made per recreation in Division 1 at 10.7. Alexander supplied most of their 3-point scoring, flattening 4 of their six makes. All issues thought-about, they had been nonetheless solely down a mere 5 factors on the under-8 media timeout because of Alexander’s herculean effort. However one final run from St. John’s sealed the deal.
Ground common Daniss Jenkins had arguably his greatest recreation of the yr, impacting all sides of the sport with 27 factors, six assists, two steals and two blocks. He’s been St. John’s engine all season lengthy and performed with such confidence all through the sport. His really feel was unbelievable, and when the sport was nonetheless within the stability he sealed the take care of his personal 11-0 run. Backcourt mate Jordan Dingle supplied his personal scoring spark down the stretch with 12 second half factors by way of mid-range jumpers. Just like Alexander, each guards discovered success exploiting the house contained in the arc when Kalkbrenner was in drop protection. Regardless of his eight blocks, the Pink Storm nonetheless discovered success inside for 34 paint factors. Defensively they had been in sync in all their methods. They confirmed our bodies when Creighton appeared to feed Kalkbrenner down low, and rotated extraordinarily nicely to not quit any open 3-point appears to be like. The unsung hero on this win was Glenn Taylor Jr., getting his first begin after seeing his position diminish. He accrued 10 rebounds, six assists, one block and a steal on the day in his return to the beginning lineup.
St. John’s saved their nationwide event hopes alive with a dominant recreation towards a ranked opponent. To come back out on prime in a must-win state of affairs ought to give them the arrogance they should sweep the remainder of their convention video games. They give the impression of being to increase their win-streak to a few on the street towards Butler on Wednesday, February twenty eighth.
Creighton was contemporary off an enormous upset themselves, taking down the #1 ranked crew within the nation UConn. They might have eased up a bit following that tense match-up earlier within the week, however this loss proved there’s nonetheless room to enhance earlier than the Massive East event again at Madison Sq. Backyard. Creighton’s subsequent outing shall be towards a tricky Seton Corridor crew at house on the twenty eighth as nicely.
This text was written by Justin Maldonado, a correspondent and scout for NetScouts Basketball. You possibly can comply with us on Fb, or on twitter.
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