St. John’s Knocks Off Fairleigh Dickinson in Queens

The St. John's men's basketball team topped Fairleigh Dickinson, 87-74, on Saturday night inside Carnesecca Arena. All five Red Storm starters recorded double figures, including team-high 17-point performances from both Julian Champagnie and Posh Alexander. Champagnie also grabbed 10 boards for his first double-double this season and 12th of his career.
 
Stef Smith added 14 points and went 8-for-10 from the line, Montez Mathis chipped in 13 points going 6-for-10 from the field, and Joel Soriano finished with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting for the Red Storm. The win marked the 13th straight non-conference victory at Carnesecca Arena for a St. John's squad that was playing without the services of injured freshman guard Rafael Pinzon and graduate student Tareq Coburn, who missed the contest with a non-COVID illness.

St. John's (3-1) led by as many as 22 points and kept a double-digit advantage for the majority of its wire-to-wire victory. The Johnnies outscored Fairleigh Dickinson (0-3), 46-24, in the paint and converted 22-of-29 attempts at the free-throw line.
 
Aaron Wheeler and Dylan Addae-Wusu gave the Red Storm a spark off the bench finishing with eight and six points, respectively. The duo combined to shoot 3-for-5 from distance while Addae-Wusu also handed out a game-high five assists.
 
Mathis got the Johnnies going early, scoring five of the team's first nine points and recorded two of his three steals less than four minutes into the action. The Baltimore, Md., native helped spark a 20-6 run midway through the stanza that gave the Red Storm its largest lead of the half, 31-13. He finished off the scoring surge with a breakaway dunk at the 11:12 mark.
 
The Red Storm carried a 45-32 advantage into the locker room as Mathis and Smith each posted nine points before the break.
 
In the second half, St. John's extended its lead to 20 after a going on a 9-0 spurt capped by a triple from Addae-Wusu and then a jumper from Wheeler with just over 10 minutes remaining. However, FDU did not go away easy as junior guard Devon Dunn recorded 15 of his game-high 24 points in the second half. The Washington, D.C., native buried a trio of 3-pointers in the final six minutes to get the Knights as close as nine. Dunn finished the game 8-for-10 from the field, hitting six threes while also dishing out a team-high three assists.

St. John's helped turn the Knights over 23 times in the contest and converted their miscues into 27 points. It marked the most turnovers by a Red Storm opponent since DePaul coughed up 24 on Feb. 20, 2021 at Carnesecca Arena.
 
With the victory, the Johnnies improved to a perfect 13-0 in the all-time series with Fairleigh Dickinson.
 
St. John's returns to action on Tuesday when the Johnnies host St. Francis Brooklyn at 7 p.m. on FS2.