St. John's crushes No. 10 Creighton in shocking upset

By: Troy Mauriello

Photo Credit: AP

It’s been a season filled with heartbreaking losses for the St. John’s Red Storm.

In their Big East opener, the Johnnies dropped a five-point lead with three minutes to play in a loss against Butler. A few weeks later, an upset-bid was turned away by Seton Hall after the Red Storm lost a 13-point halftime lead. A 17-point second half lead was blown against Georgetown, another late lead was squandered against Xavier.

Down the stretch on Sunday against No. 10 Creighton in Carnesecca Arena, Red Storm fans had to be thinking they’ve seen this story before. St. John’s led by as many as 12 in the first half, but with eight minutes to go the Red Storm’s lead was down to just four.

But from there, St. John’s left no doubt.

Instead of being hit with another heartbreaking loss, the Red Storm hit back with a knockout punch of their own. The Johnnies used a late 14-0 run, fueled by miraculously hot three-point shooting, to run the 10th-ranked Blue Jays out of the gym in a 91-71 blowout.

A win like this felt like it was on the horizon for St. John’s, but even the most optimistic Red Storm fans couldn’t have seen a performance like this coming. The Johnnies entered the game as the worst three-point shooting team in the Big East, yet shot a smouldering 14-22 from downtown in this one, leading them to their first on-campus win over a top-10 team since 1975.

“Ranked or unranked, it feels good to get a win, especially on our home court in front of our fans,” junior guard LJ Figueroa said. “The team has been going through a lot...We’ve been going through a lot so it feels to get this win.”

St. John’s was paced by sophomore guard Greg Williams Jr., who shot 7-10 from three-point range on his way to a career-high 21 points. Williams Jr. sent the Carnesecca Arena crowd into a frenzy with three-pointers on two straight possessions within 20 seconds of each other, the second of which gave the Red Storm a 17-point lead with five minutes left to put the game away.

“His confidence is at an all-time high,” St. John’s head coach Mike Anderson said on Williams Jr. “Today, he was in the zone. The beauty of that is when a guy’s in a zone you find him and he delivered.”

“My teammates were just finding me. When we go and play for each other, play together, things like that can happen,” Williams Jr. said.

Figueroa and junior guard Rasheem Dunn finished with double-doubles for the Red Storm. Dunn finished with 19 points and a season-high 10 assists, while Figueroa notched 16 points, 12 rebounds and had five assists as well. As a team, St. John’s finished with 23 assists on 33 made baskets.

“When you get 23 assists in a game of this magnitude, against a team such as Creighton, that tells you you’re sharing the basketball,” Anderson said.

The Red Storm was tenacious on the defensive end as well. Creighton, the second-best three-point shooting team in the Big East, was held to just 4-27 from downtown. Junior guard Ty-Shon Alexander, junior guard Mitch Ballock, and sophomore guard Marcus Zegarowski, who all rank top-10 in the conference in three-point shooting, combined to shoot 4-21 from deep.

“Our guys take pride on defense and they were really out there on the shooters,” Anderson said. “[Creighton has] guys who can make it from 30 feet, so we were guarding at least 35 feet out. You have to be with them and make them uncomfortable.”

At 15-14 overall and just 4-12 in the conference, St. John’s is still further than a longshot to reach the NCAA Tournament. However this unexpected win does open the door for an appearance in the postseason NIT. The Red Storm will likely have to split their final two games against Butler and Marquette to have a realistic shot at being selected into the NIT field, but perhaps this performance will give the Johnnies the confidence needed to go out and do just that.

“To come out with [the win] it was really encouraging. It lets us know that we are capable of doing that,” Williams Jr. said.