The St John’s Men’s Basketball Huddle. Photo by: Stacy Podelski/1495 Sports
The St. John’s men’s basketball team visits CenturyLink Center Omaha on Wednesday to square off with Creighton (9-12, 0-8) at 9 p.m. eastern on FOX Sports 1. Kevin Kugler and Bob Wenzel will call the action for the national telecast. The Red Storm radio broadcast with John Minko will air on 570 AM (WMCA).
St. John’s (13-6, 2-4) has won two of its last three BIG EAST contests, including an 83-70 victory in its first conference road win of the year at Providence on Jan. 14. The Red Storm’s most-recent league victory came over Marquette, 60-57, last Wednesday at Madison Square Garden. Sir’Dominic Pointer delivered one of the top all-around performances of his career posting 15 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, six blocks and two steals versus the Golden Eagles.
The Red Storm is coming off a 77-68 setback against No. 5 Duke on Sunday at The Garden. St. John’s led for the majority of the contest and had a 10-point advantage with 8:35 remaining, but could not settle Duke’s game-closing 26-7 run. The Blue Devils scored 12 of their final 26 points at the free-throw line. St. John’s has finished the non-conference portion of the regular-season schedule with an 11-2 (.846) record, the program’s best out-of-conference mark since going 10-1 (.909) in 1990-91.
Pointer averaged 18.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals in St. John’s two contests last week to earn BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll recognition for the second time in the last five weeks. The 6-foot-6 senior from Detroit currently ranks in the top-10 of the conference in rebounds (7.3), field goal percentage (53.4), steals (2.2), blocks (2.2) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.9).
Things To Know
- St. John’s has shot 40.0 percent (26-of-65) from downtown in its four road contests. The Red Storm had its top 3-point shooting performances of the season in wins at Providence (58.8 pct, 10-of-17) and at Syracuse (56.3 pct, 9-of-16). D’Angelo Harrison and Phil Greene IV each had four 3s against the Orange on Dec. 6 to snap Syracuse’s 55-game non-conference win streak at the Carrier Dome with a 69-57 victory. St. John’s also handed the Friars their second loss in 12 games this season at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center with an 83-70 win behind Greene IV’s five 3-pointers and four from Harrison.
- In his last three games playing at least 30 minutes, Sir’Dominic Pointer has led St. John’s in nearly every statistical category. During this stretch, Pointer has produced team-highs with 18.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 3.3 blocks, 2.3 steals, and has a 50.0 percent (19-of-38) field goal shooting mark to go with an 84.2 percent (16-of-19) free-throw shooting rate. Pointer posted double-doubles in the last two games. He went for 15 points, 12 rebounds, six blocks, six assists and two steals last Wednesday in a 60-57 victory over Marquette. Pointer is coming off a 21-point, 10-rebound performance versus No. 5/6 Duke where he also added four assists, three blocks and three steals.
- Since returning to the starting lineup on Jan. 14, Rysheed Jordan has recorded a team-high 16.8 points shooting 46.8 percent (22-of-47) from the field and 41.7 percent (5-of-12) from downtown. Jordan has posted at least 15 points in each of the last four games and he has shot at least 42.9 percent from the field. Jordan recorded 18 points versus Duke hitting two 3-pointers and going 4-of-5 (80.0 pct) at the free-throw line.
- St. John’s is 39th in the nation holding opponents to a 39.0 field goal shooting percentage this season. In the last three BIG EAST contests, the Red Storm kept Marquette (Jan. 21), DePaul (Jan. 18) and Providence (Jan. 14) all below the 40.0 percent mark. St. John’s has a 12-1 record in games when the opposition is shooting under 40.0 percent from the field.
- Phil Greene IV has elevated his scoring average to 17.5 points per game while hitting 48.1 percent (13-of-27) of his attempts from 3-point territory in road games. D’Angelo Harrison is averaging 20.0 points on the road and has a 43.5 percent (10-of-23) 3-point field goal mark.
About the Series
- St. John’s is 6-3 all-time versus Creighton. The programs split the regular-season meetings in 2013-14 as BIG EAST rivals.
- The Red Storm earned a 70-65 victory in their last contest on Feb. 9, 2014 over then-ranked No. 12 Creighton at Madison Square Garden. D’Angelo Harrison led St. John’s with 19 points and hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:08 to play.
- St. John’s and Creighton met for the first time as BIG EAST counterparts on Jan. 28, 2014 at CenturyLink Center Omaha. Down by 18 with 12:02 left in regulation, St. John’s went on a 28-10 run to tie the game at 60-60 before Doug McDermott drained a 3 with 2.8 seconds on the clock to give the Bluejays a 63-60 victory.
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