After suffering from a nightmare 85-62 loss handed by the Butler Bulldogs, the St. John’s men’s basketball team’s main focus was to protect home court in their upcoming two-game home stretch and put their worst loss of the season behind them. Senior guard, D’Angelo Harrison, managed to hit another college career milestone while the team was in Indiana. Harrison moved to being number three on the St. John’s scoring list with 2,000 points (and counting) under his belt putting him in the great company of legends Chris Mullin and Malik Sealy. Though Harrison expressed how honored he was to have fulfilled this personal accomplishment, he stated that it would mean nothing if the team doesn’t make it to the NCAA tournament.
Once the Johnnies stepped foot back onto their home floor at Madison Square Garden, they prepared to get their revenge on the Creighton Bluejays as they fell to them in their last meeting in late January. The guys showed signs of life early on and showcased a significant sense of urgency that hadn’t been seen in the past few games through the eyes of St. John’s fans. Senior guard/forward, Sir’Dominic Pointer, sported a “Dr. Jay” style-like fro as his past few performances have earned him the accolade of being named onto the Big East weekly honor roll for his third consecutive appearance. Sophomore guard, Rysheed Jordan, exemplified how his game is on a constant uprise throughout conference play as he scored a career high of 25-points in the midst of Saturday’s matchup against Creighton. Along with senior guard, Phil Greene IV, scoring an efficient 13 points on a superb 6 of 10 shooting. Harrison even showed signs of getting back to his normal prolific game, after dealing with a couple of ailments, he visibly got the needed lift on jump shots as well as being fearless when attacking the basket getting the usual liquid flow of his shots going once again to eventually earn him a double-double.
The reenergized Red Storm deemed as victorious as they pummeled over the Bluejays in a 84-66 win despite missing their dynamic shot blocker, junior Chris Obekpa for a vast majority of the game after being benched out of the starting lineup due to a flagrant elbow thrown to the face of Butler’s Tyler Wideman in their previous matchup. Coach Lavin’s plan to go small against Creighton strategically worked but having the 6’10” big man out for a questionable amount of time could definitely interfere with the winning streak St. John’s needs to build heading into March. With Wednesday’s late night matchup brewing next for the Red Storm, they look to take on the DePaul Blue Demons at their on-campus floor of Carnesecca Arena at 9pm on CBS Sports Network.
* BONUS: In celebration of him becoming the third all-time scorer in St. John’s history, check out D’Angelo Harrison’s latest feature in St. John’s very own, Red Storm Report. Enjoy! *