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