After holding off Monmouth for a quality win on Thursday night in Queens, the St. John’s Men’s Basketball team will return to action in the Gotham Classic at Carnesecca Arena when it hosts Colgate on Sunday.
Tip-off is scheduled for 12 p.m. on FS1 with Alex Faust and Casey Jacobsen on the call. Fans can also hear the LEARFIELD Red Storm Sports Network broadcast with John Minko and Brandon Tierney on a variety of digital platforms, including the Varsity Network app, TuneIn, XM channel 388 and channel 978 in the Sirius XM app, RedStormSports.com and the newly launched St. John’s Red Storm mobile app.
The Red Storm (7-2) will look to remain perfect on the season at Carnesecca Arena when it welcomes reigning Patriot League champion Colgate (4-6). St. John’s improved to 7-0 on the year in Queens on Thursday against Monmouth after holding off a late Hawks charge. Colgate led by three with a minute to go at Pittsburgh on Thursday night before the Panthers ended the game on a 6-0 run.
The win against Monmouth, a team that had won five road games this season before coming to Queens, launched the Red Storm 17 spots up in the NET rankings from 111 to 94. All but two BIG EAST teams now rank inside the top 100 of the NET while seven sit inside the top 75 and four place in the top 30. If those rankings were to hold, the Johnnies would have 11 chances at a Quad One win during their 20-game conference season.
Posh Alexander led five St. John’s scorers in double figures on Thursday, posting his second straight 20-point performance with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting and a 7-for-8 effort from the charity stripe.
Julian Champagnie tallied 16 points, five assists, four steals and three blocks in the win. The preseason First Team All-BIG EAST selection, who has reached double figures in 34 straight appearances, ranks second in the conference in both scoring (20.4 ppg) and steals per game (2.2).
After recording his first career double-double against Fordham, Dylan Addae-Wusu followed up with an 11-point, seven-assist, six-rebound showing against the Hawks. Over this last three games, the sophomore from the Bronx is averaging 12.6 points and 7.3 assists.
Montez Mathis logged 14 points against Monmouth, finishing in double figures for the fifth time in his last six outings. Stef Smith scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including a 3-for-4 effort from deep, in just 12 minutes of action.
Under Head Coach Mike Anderson, St. John’s is now 20-1 in non-conference play at Carnesecca Arena and holds a 17-game winning streak dating back to November of 2019.
Colgate, which went 14-1 against Patriot League foes during the 2020-21 season, has lost four of five since a marquee win against Syracuse on Nov. 20 at the Carrier Dome. In that victory over the Orange, which snapped a 54-game Syracuse winning streak in the series, Colgate hit 18 triples on its way to a 100-85 victory. The Raiders also hit 18 3-pointers in their most recent win against Columbia on Dec. 6.
On the season, Colgate ranks 24th in Division I with a 38.9 percent success rate from 3-point range. The Raiders are led in that category by senior guard Nelly Cummings, who is shooting 50.0 percent from deep (32-of-64) despite going 0-for-6 against Pitt. The Midland, Pa., native owns the nation’s 14th best 3-point percentage through games played on Thursday.
St. John’s and Colgate will meet for the eighth time in a series history that dates back to 1910. The Red Storm owns a 5-2 advantage all-time over the Raiders and has won each of the last four games between the two teams dating back to 1969, all of which were played Carnesecca Arena/Alumni Hall. Colgate has gone more than 100 years since picking up a win against St. John’s, defeating the Johnnies in 1910 and 1920.
The Red Storm won its last meeting against the Raiders, 69-53, on Dec. 9, 1997. Zendon Hamilton, now the Red Storm’s coordinator of basketball operations, scored a team-high 15 points in that win.
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