St. John’s coach Rick Pitino only saw glimpses of RJ Luis Jr.’s capabilities last year because of a shin injury that cost him 10 games and persisted through the season.
This season, Luis is among the major reasons for St. John’s getting off to a hot start in Big East play.
The swingman attempts to produce another strong showing Tuesday night when the Red Storm put their unbeaten home record on the line against improving Georgetown in New York.
Luis was named Big East Player of the Week after averaging 24 points in the Red Storm’s 10-point win at Xavier and an 80-68 home victory over Villanova on Saturday. He is scoring 17.4 points per game after getting 30 in his third straight double-double on Saturday and is tied with Xavier’s Zach Freemantle as the fourth-best scorer in the Big East.
Luis’ big performance helped the Red Storm (14-3, 5-1) improve to 11-0 at home and continued their best start to conference play since the 2000-01 team also started 5-1.
“He’s physically stronger than what he was,” Pitino said after Luis scored 23 points in the second half. “He has — and this is a good thing, it’s not a selfish thing — he has an incredible desire to score.”
Luis produced his big game after Deivon Smith injured his right shoulder in the first half and was unable to finish the game after trying to briefly play through it in the second. He is day-to-day with a sprained right shoulder and could play Tuesday.
Georgetown (12-4, 3-2) is significantly improved after losing a combined 73 games in the previous three seasons thanks to the presence of Thomas Sorber, who is the league’s top rebounder (8.5) and is second in blocked shots (2.4).
The Hoyas are coming off consecutive eight-point losses to No. 7 Marquette and No. 14 UConn. Sorber struggled to get into the offense, scoring 11 points against Marquette and nine in Saturday’s 68-60 loss to UConn, when the Hoyas allowed a 17-2 run to start the second half and trailed by as many as 23 before making a late charge.
Georgetown was held below 70 points for the third straight time, fourth time in league play and eighth time overall. The Hoyas were able to stay in both of their previous games thanks to a defense that held the Huskies to 41.4 percent after halftime following five straight games of holding foes below 40 percent from the field.
“We just have to take them head on and work on playing more physically,” Georgetown’s Malik Mack said. “They had moments where they were bringing it to us and we were trying to complain our way through it instead of just playing.”
–Field Level Media
