@Xavier, Wed., Jan. 31, 6:30p, FS-1

Knight

Moderator
Staff member
2023 $upporter 2022 $upporter Moderator
ST. JOHN’S
RED STORM (13 -7, 5 - 4)

SCHEDULE

https://redstormsports.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule?path=mbball

ROSTER
https://redstormsports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster?path=mbball

STATISTICS

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

XAVIER
MUSKETEERS (10 - 10, 4 - 5)

SCHEDULE

https://goxavier.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/2023-24

ROSTER
https://goxavier.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/2023-24

STATISTICS
https://goxavier.com/documents/2023/12/10/2023-24_MBB_Season_Stats1209.pdf
 
FIRST GAME RECAP

St. John’s Downs Xavier, 81-66

Red Storm senior center Joel Soriano recorded 18 points, 14 rebounds, six blocks and five assists in wire-to-wire victory at Carnesecca Arena


QUEENS, N.Y. – For the second-straight game, the St. John's men's basketball team led from start to finish as the Johnnies rolled to an 81-66 victory over Xavier on Wednesday at Carnesecca Arena in their BIG EAST opener. Senior center Joel Soriano led the charge with 18 points, 14 rebounds, six blocks and five assists as the Red Storm improved to a perfect 4-0 in Queens this season.

St. John's (8-3, 1-0 BIG EAST) put forth a dominant defensive effort as the Musketeers shot just 34.9 percent (22-63 FG) from the field and a season-low 19.0 percent (4-21 3FG) from distance. The Red Storm also forced Xavier (6-6, 0-1 BIG EAST) into 18 turnovers while Soriano set a career-high recording six of the team's eight blocks.

On the offensive end of the floor, the Red Storm had five players score in double figures and shot 46.3 percent (31-67 FG) from the field with seven 3-pointers. The Johnnies also dished out 17 assists while recording 16 second chance points.

Soriano registered his seventh double-double of the season and grabbed the 1,000th rebound of his collegiate career on Wednesday.

St. John's graduate student Nahiem Alleyne earned his second start of the season and finished with a season-high 15 points, shooting 6-for-11 from the field. The 6-foot-4 guard from Buford, Ga., also grabbed four rebounds and dished out a pair of assists in 33 minutes of action.

Chris Ledlum chipped in 13 points, six rebounds and two blocks for the Red Storm. Daniss Jenkins added 11 points and matched Soriano with a game-high five assists while Jordan Dingle rounded out those in double figures with 10 points of his own.

St. John's scored the first eight points of the contest and never looked back. Jenkins powered the Red Storm's early surge by scoring seven points while also dishing out an assist for a Glenn Taylor Jr. 3-pointer that put the team up 10-3 less than four minutes into the contest. Taylor finished with eight points, six rebounds and a pair of steals in 34 minutes of action.

The Johnnies built a nine-point advantage with four and a half minutes to play in the half after Alleyne scored four straight points with a jumper and a pair of free-throws. St. John's would maintain an eight-point advantage, 44-36, by intermission with Ledlum scoring 10 of his 13 points before the break.

St. John's lead quickly grew to double digits in the second half after Ledlum's 3-pointer jumpstarted a 7-0 run that put the Johnnies on top 51-36 by the 16:39 mark. Defensively, the Red Storm held Xavier to shoot just 2-for-17 from the field and 0-for-6 from distance over the first eight minutes of the latter stanza.

The Red Storm led by as many as 20 after going on an 11-3 run in less than three minutes down the stretch. Back-to-back Soriano slams capped the spurt and sent St. John's ahead 79-59 by the 2:14 mark to all but seal the team's sixth win in the last seven games.

Desmond Claude led Xavier with 21 points and 12 rebounds. The sophomore guard shot 12-for-14 from the free-throw line. Quincy Olivari, who entered the game averaging 24.5 points over the Musketeers' last two wins, finished with 13 points.


BOXSCORE

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/...Score_vs._Xavier.PDF?timestamp=20231221025404
 
I did not take the subway home tonight. But that's because I did not stay in the city. The LIRR to Long Island seemed safe, even though it was after 11 PM. If I saw Monte I might have felt unsafe, but I didn't. The statistics said I wouldn't, but you can't believe statistics. Or math. And definitely not science.

I was expecting the attendance on the train to be about 600, but it was happy to see that it was actually 658. I don't know how many of those were regular passengers as opposed to SJU fans though. I would have been very disappointed if it was only 572 passengers.

One area of concern is that I didn't see Glenn Taylor on the train. Someone needs to ask Zach where he was. Or ask Zach to ask Pitino. Or something.

The last game, we didn't sweep them since 1993. I remember 1993. I was coaching 5th grade boys basketball, there was a kid on the team who was a ball hog,.I used to tell him don't do that, you'll grow up to be Daniss Jenkins. Those were the days. Did I mention Chris Mullin?

You know who could fix both attendance AND the subway? Mike Repole, that's who. But he was probably at Rose"s Pizza getting fat with Maher before they go wear Speedos in South America, too busy to bother with attendance and subways.

Oh hey, are we playing someone next week? What time? Is the game on TV? What channel?

Think that about covers this thread for the next 4 or 5 days.
 
I did not take the subway home tonight. But that's because I did not stay in the city. The LIRR to Long Island seemed safe, even though it was after 11 PM. If I saw Monte I might have felt unsafe, but I didn't. The statistics said I wouldn't, but you can't believe statistics. Or math. And definitely not science.

I was expecting the attendance on the train to be about 600, but it was happy to see that it was actually 658. I don't know how many of those were regular passengers as opposed to SJU fans though. I would have been very disappointed if it was only 572 passengers.

One area of concern is that I didn't see Glenn Taylor on the train. Someone needs to ask Zach where he was. Or ask Zach to ask Pitino. Or something.

The last game, we didn't sweep them since 1993. I remember 1993. I was coaching 5th grade boys basketball, there was a kid on the team who was a ball hog,.I used to tell him don't do that, you'll grow up to be Daniss Jenkins. Those were the days. Did I mention Chris Mullin?

You know who could fix both attendance AND the subway? Mike Repole, that's who. But he was probably at Rose"s Pizza getting fat with Maher before they go wear Speedos in South America, too busy to bother with attendance and subways.

Oh hey, are we playing someone next week? What time? Is the game on TV? What channel?

Think that about covers this thread for the next 4 or 5 days.
You forgot to say how many pages the thread will be till the game starts
 
Another big game in keeping the team over 500. There are allot of teams bunched up in the middle of the league, now is the time to differentiate who wants to go Dancin and who doesn’t. Let’s keep it rolling and then take down Yukon.
 
The Johnnies will likely be the underdog going into Xavier.

Kenpom gives StJohn’s a 39% chance of winning being on the losing end of a 79 to 76 final score.
 
Winning at X or at Butler is pure gravy. Winning on the road in the Big East is hard against anyone, anywhere (possible exception of DePaul). X and especially Butler are also very difficult places to play. Think we are more likely to win at X than at Butler, but I penciled both of those in as losses long ago. Just hold serve at home against the Hall and Creighton and we'll be fine.
 
This is our year to steal a road win at X and or Butler, maybe one or both. We have a new coach and anything can happen with Pitino in charge. I'll take him over Miller and Matta. Like our chances in both games.

Sweeping Nova, Butler and X puts us in very good shape.

Back to reality, one game at a time, Beat X next Wednesday, then worry about the game after that.
 
Yikes indeed. I'll note our four conference losses are to the teams currently 1-4 in the standings.

Stop me if I've said this before, but until further notice - they are who we thought they were. Solidly in the 4-6 range in the league. They have come close to being a bit more, but aren't there yet. However they are growing as the season goes on, so the book is not fully written yet.
 
Back
Top