Red Storm improves to 5-1 in its last six
February 1, 2021
Leading by 15 at the intermission, the St. John's men's basketball team withstood a series of second-half runs from Marquette on Sunday, holding off the Golden Eagles, 75-73, at Fiserv Forum and winning its fourth straight decision.
The Red Storm (11-7, 5-6 BIG EAST) closed the month of January by winning four in a row and five of its last six overall. Included in that four-game stretch were three BIG EAST road wins, marking the first time since 2014-15 that the Johnnies have won three consecutive conference contests. Prior to this afternoon, the Red Storm had not registered a three-game winning streak on the road in BIG EAST play since topping Cincinnati, DePaul and Rutgers during the 2012-13 campaign.
The Johnnies have now matched their BIG EAST regular season win total from all of last season in just 11 conference games.
Ahead by 15, 46-31, at the break, St. John's saw Marquette open the second half with a 20-5 run in the span of just over five minutes to tie the game at 51. The Red Storm responded with a 12-2 burst of its own to bump the lead back to double digits, 63-53, at the midway mark of the period.
Marquette shaved its deficit down to one three times in the final four minutes, but the Johnnies had an answer every time. With 1:32 to go and the Red Storm leading 69-68, Posh Alexander picked the pocket of D.J. Carton at midcourt and laid it home. Less than 30 seconds later with the Red Storm cushion back down to one following a pair of Golden Eagle free throws, Dylan Addae-Wusu drove the lane and made a difficult layup through contact. Rasheem Dunn provided the final heroics, draining a pair of free throws to make it a four-point game with 21 seconds left before recording the game-saving steal with less than a second to go.
The leading scorer in the BIG EAST, Julian Champagnie led the way for St. John's with 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including a 4-of-7 effort from beyond the arc. Champagnie, who also grabbed a team-high seven boards, has reached double figures in all 16 of his appearances this season with seven 20-point efforts.
Alexander finished with 15 points, three assists and a season-high six steals in 34 minutes of action. His half-dozen thefts are tied for the single-game high by a BIG EAST player this year.
Dunn tallied 11 points for the third time in his last four games and three assists.
Vince Cole was the fourth Johnnie to reach double figures, scoring all 10 of his points in the first half and dishing out a team-high four assists.
Addae-Wusu had six points and five boards in 20 minutes.
As a team, St. John's shot 47.4 percent (9-of-19) from the three and went a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe. The Johnnies also managed to outrebound Marquette, 34-33, including a 13-12 margin on the offensive glass.
After allowing 86.2 points per game in their first six BIG EAST games, the Johnnies have allowed no more than 73 in any of their last five conference contests.
After Marquette scored the game's first five points, St. John's responded by scoring seven straight and 28 of the game's next 36 to make it 28-13 near the midway mark of the half. The Red Storm's run was anchored by a strong performance from the three-point line, as the Johnnies went 6-of-9 from deep in the game's first 10:02. Champagnie and Cole drained two apiece during that stretch.
Following a timeout, the Golden Eagles responded with a 9-2 run to cut the St. John's lead to single digits, 30-22, with just under seven minutes remaining.
The Red Storm lead remained in that neighborhood before the Johnnies scored six points in a span of eight seconds to close the half. Alexander found Champagnie for a triple before stealing the inbounds pass and converting on an old-fashioned three-point play.
St. John's let its 15-point halftime lead slip away, but the Red Storm never trailed after falling behind 5-3 with 1:21 gone in the first half.
The Johnnies will return to action on Wednesday, playing host to No. 3/3 Villanova at Carnesecca Arena. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.