No. 12 St. John’s will aim to extend three pronounced streaks and give itself a more comfortable cushion atop the Big East when it hosts No. 11 Marquette on Tuesday evening in New York.
The Red Storm (19-3, 10-1 Big East) have won eight games in a row overall, seven straight at Madison Square Garden, and all 14 games at home this season.
St. John’s moved into sole possession of first place in the conference on Saturday with a 68-66 victory over Providence coupled with Marquette’s 77-69 setback to then-No. 25 UConn.
The Golden Eagles (18-4, 9-2), who are tied with Creighton (16-6, 9-2) for second place, will visit the Bluejays on Saturday.
St. John’s Kadary Richmond capped a season-high 24-point performance by sinking the game-winning jumper with three seconds left against the Friars.
“It felt very good. The coaches, my teammates, they believed in me to give me the ball at the end of the game,” Richmond said, per the New York Post. “We executed the play, and I made a big-time shot.”
Richmond has been making several big-time shots of late, going 10-for-14 from the floor against Providence to improve to 30-for-45 over the last four games.
“I think he’s playing really good basketball. We were going to win it or lose it with Kadary’s shot or his pass,” Red Storm coach Rick Pitino said. “He made a terrific shot. He was shooting the ball well all game. I’m really, really happy for him.”
RJ Luis collected 19 points and eight rebounds as St. John’s won its eighth straight Big East game, its longest winning streak in league play since it posted eight straight victories from Feb. 1 from March 2, 1992.
Luis (17.5), Zuby Ejiofor (14.4) and Richmond (11.9) are averaging double-digit point totals per game for the Red Storm. Ejiofor averages a team-best 8.1 rebounds, and Richmond is tops on the club in assists (4.8) and steals (2.0).
While St. John’s has been taking considerable steps forward, Marquette took one step back on Saturday.
Kam Jones scored 22 points and Chase Ross added 19 on a combined 16-for-33 shooting from the floor. Unfortunately for the Golden Eagles, the rest of the team made just 9 of 30 shots vs. the Huskies.
In addition, Marquette stumbled out of the blocks and trailed by 22 points in the first half.
“Defensively, it was a roller coaster for us,” Ross said, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We had great stretches, and we had other stretches where we could have done better. So I feel like if we just negate negative stretches, we’ll be fine.”
Marquette coach Shaka Smart said he doesn’t think it’s that simple.
“We have to have an understanding that beating Marquette is a quality win, and there’s a level of desperation that the other teams have when they play us,” Smart said. “Whether that’s UConn, Butler, Villanova, it doesn’t matter.
“We talk about that a lot. Acceptance only works 100 percent. So if you 75 percent accept that, it ain’t going to work.”
Jones boasts team-best averages in points (19) and assists (6.2). David Joplin contributes 14.5 points to go with a team-high 5.2 rebounds per game.
–Field Level Media
