Riding a 7-0 start for just the third time in the last 30 years, the St. John’s Men’s Basketball team will wrap the month of November when it welcomes LIU to Carnesecca Arena for a Tuesday night tilt.
Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. on FS1 with Scott Graham and Jim Spanarkel on the call.
An audio broadcast of the game on the LEARFIELD Red Storm Sports Network with John Minko and Vin Parise will also be available on a variety of platforms including the Varsity Network App, TuneIn Radio, RedStormSports.com and the St. John’s Red Storm mobile app. The broadcast can also be heard on SiriusXM channel 380 and channel 970 on the SiriusXM App.
St. John’s has won each of its first seven games to start the season for just the third time in the last three decades. The 2018-19 Red Storm accomplished the feat as part of a larger 12-0 start while the 1994-95 Red Storm won seven straight to begin the freshman campaigns of Felipe Lopez, Zendon Hamilton and Tarik Turner.
The Red Storm received one vote in Monday’s edition of the Associated Press Top 25 poll. St. John’s has now placed among “others receiving votes” at least once in all four seasons under the direction of Head Coach Mike Anderson.
Following a trio of standout performances, Joel Soriano was named the BIG EAST Player of the Week for the first time in his career on Monday. Soriano began the week with a pair of stellar efforts in the Empire Classic, scoring 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting and grabbing 12 boards against Temple before tallying a then-career-high 19 points and 14 boards the following night in an overtime win over former BIG EAST rival Syracuse. On Saturday against Niagara, Soriano set a pair of career-highs, scoring 21 points and grabbing 19 boards in the win over the Purple Eagles. On the season, Soriano leads the nation in both rebounds per game (12.7) and double-doubles (6). Last season, Soriano recorded just one double-double in 30 tries. This year, he has six in just seven opportunities.
Soriano led five Johnnies in double figures against Niagara, as four of his teammates finished with exactly 10 points: David Jones, Montez Mathis, O’Mar Stanley and Dylan Addae-Wusu.
The Red Storm played its most recent contest without the services of Posh Alexander and Rafael Pinzon, both of whom missed the game due to injuries.
Tuesday’s contest against LIU will mark the only time this season that St. John’s will square off a team from within the city limits. It will also wrap a stretch of eight straight matchups to start the year contested within the Five Boroughs.
The Red Storm will make its first true road trip of the season this weekend when it heads to Ames to take on No. 23 Iowa State inside Hilton Coliseum.
LIU ventures to Queens with an overall record of 1-4 with its only win coming against Division III Mount Saint Vincent on Nov. 14. That win against Mount Saint Vincent bookended a pair of road games against high-major foes, as the Sharks lost their season opener, 89-48, at Utah before falling to Marquette, 95-58, in Milwaukee. LIU recently went 0-2 at the Fort Meyers Tip-Off, falling to South Dakota and Northern Illinois by double digits.
Under the direction of first-year Head Coach Rod Strickland, the Sharks are led offensively by sophomore Marko Maletic at 15.8 points per game. The 6-foot-6 guard has made a team-high 17 3-pointers and is shooting 39.5 percent from beyond the arc. Tre’ Wood, the team’s second-leading scorer at 12.0 points per game, has not played in any of the Sharks’ last three games.
Despite their proximity and long histories in Division I, St. John’s and LIU will meet for only the 15th time on Tuesday evening. The Red Storm leads the series, which dates back to 1931, 10-4. The teams did not play one another between 1936-88.
The Sharks, then known as the Blackbirds, won the last meeting between the two programs, 76-74, at Barclays Center on Dec. 11, 2016.
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