After turning corner, St. John’s returns home to meet Marquette
Shortly after the horn sounded on a disappointing home loss to Providence on Jan. 3, St. John's seemed to have hit a low point. At least, the Red Storm hoped it would be their low point.
In the past week, the Red Storm responded with a pair of impressive road performances and they seek their third straight win Tuesday night when they host struggling Marquette in New York.
The Red Storm (11-5, 4-1 Big East) are playing their first home game since squandering a 10-point second-half lead in their 77-71 loss to Providence -- when St. John's shot a dreadful 28.2% and coach Rick Pitino said their backs were against the wall.
After the Providence loss, the Red Storm beat Butler and Creighton by a combined 31 points while getting balanced performances throughout the lineup.
In Saturday's 90-73 win at Creighton, six reached double figures and Zuby Ejiofor did not have to do the heavy lifting offensively. Lefteris Liotopoulos followed up a 10-point outing at Butler with a career-best 17-point showing in 29 minutes off the bench. Oziyah Sellers added 16 and Ejiofor, Ian Jackson and Bryce Hopkins had 12 apiece.
"These guys are great," Pitino said after his team scored at least 90 points for the eighth time this season. "They give me everything they have. I never wavered one bit. I told them they're going to win. They're going to get on a winning streak. I said, ‘If you can win on the road, that tells you who you are.'"
Marquette lost two regular-season meetings to St. John's by a combined eight points last season, but this year's team has struggled all season. The Golden Eagles (6-11, 1-5) have matched their loss total from last season and ranks as the Big East's worst shooting team at 40.4%.
The Golden Eagles dropped six straight before eking out a 66-65 home win over Xavier on Wednesday. But they followed it up with Saturday's 76-73 home loss to Villanova, when they got an encouraging showing from freshman Nigel James Jr. while also allowing a season-worst 55.4% shooting.
"I would say over the course of the season, some of the plays down the stretch is a combination of execution and having a young team and some guys out there that are not quite maybe seasoned enough to do what exactly we need to do," Marquette coach Shaka Smart said.
James scored a career-high 31 points and shot 11 of 14 from the field after shooting 15 of 37 in his previous three games. His performance raised his scoring average to 13.5 points, second behind Chase Ross (15.5 ppg).
Ross was held to eight points on 3-of-12 shooting. He missed a deep 3-point attempt that would have tied it at the end of regulation Saturday, which left him shooting 26.9% (21 of 78) in conference play.