It was a tightly contested battle between the St. John’s University and Villanova University Men’s Basketball team. When the final buzzer sounded it was the Wildcats having a 57-49 victory in NCAA action at Madison Square Garden on Friday night.
Helping to lead the way for St. John’s was Joel Soriano who had 14 points to go along with a game-high 16 rebounds. Soriano has not only led the Red Storm, but also the College Ranks as he has had a double-double 17 times this season which leads the NCAA.
Villanova, meanwhile, shined thanks to Caleb Daniels who had a game-high 16 points, while connecting on four three-pointers. Eric Dixon had seven points and a team-high 11 rebounds while Brandon Slater tallied 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
The action packed game went back-and-forth in the first half, as neither was able to hold on to the lead. There was seven different St. John’s players were able to find themselves positive minutes on the court and they were led by Dylan Addae-Wusu who had 12 points.
The Wildcats had themselves a fine shooting performance as the first half had progressed. The team has a total of seven three-pointers. Chris Arcidiacono and Daniels had three triples while combining for 20 in the first half.
It was in the second half that things started to open up for the Red Storm, as Soriano started off with a strong seven points. After some back-and-forth, Addae-Wusu had a strong move to the rim to spark the rest of his teammates.
Villanova then went on a 9-0 run to get themselves toa 51-46 lead, prior to a thunderous dunk from Soriano helped his team to get within three points. At the end of the night though it was the Wildcats scoring six points to help them earn the victory.
The Red Storm will look to bounce back on Wednesday when the team will travel to Omaha as they will be taking on BIG EAST foe Creighton, with the tip-off between the two teams set for 9:00 p.m.
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