While Red Storm fans likely had wandering eyes for Friday’s highly anticipated duel with No. 3 UConn, St. John’s needed to handle business and avoid a calamitous defeat on the road against DePaul. The Red Storm did not let a rocky first half against the Blue Demons snowball into a possible trap game scare, pulling ahead right before halftime and controlling the game until the final buzzer to seal a 68-56 win on Tuesday night.
St. John’s struggled to take the lid off the basket up until the end of the first half, only making six of their first 26 attempts from the field. Despite their offensive futility, they took a 29-28 lead into halftime after Bryce Hopkins cashed in a layup off a turnover he forced.
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Following a C.J. Gunn mid-range jumper that gave DePaul a 35-34 lead with 17:34 remaining in the second half, the Red Storm wrung out a 12-0 run over the next six minutes to seize command of the game. DePaul slowly tried to mount a comeback by trimming St. John’s’ lead to 56-50 after a Layden Blocker fastbreak layup with 3:35 left, but the Johnnies scored the next six points to spoil any chance for drama in Chicago.
On a frustrating offensive night in which the Red Storm shot 35 percent and went a CYO league-esque 9-of-27 on layups, they got their hands dirty to manufacture 20 points off turnovers and 19 points off second-chance opportunities.
Zuby Ejiofor and Bryce Hopkins overwhelmed DePaul’s frontcourt, getting baskets in the paint or forcing their way to the line. Ejiofor almost recorded his fifth double-double of the season with a team-high 16 points and nine rebounds, while Hopkins finished with 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting and six rebounds.
Oziyah Sellers was the only St. John’s player to have a satisfactory shooting night, posting 13 points and burying three of his six attempts from long range. Ten of those points came in the second half.
Up next is the biggest game of the season for the Red Storm so far, as they play host to the third-ranked UConn Huskies at Madison Square Garden on Friday, February 6 (8 p.m., FOX) in a matchup of the two best teams in the Big East.
