Three takeaways from St. John’s 96-73 win over Quinnipiac on Saturday

Tim Ferguson gives his three takeaways from the Red Storm’s blowout win on Saturday, as well as his perspective from the Carnesecca Arena crowd

Pregame

The pregame gathering outside Carnesecca Arena found optimistic Red Storm fans, who, when asked, predicted the team making it through the first weekend of the NCAA tournament to the Sweet Sixteen come March. Yet, no one predicted a Big East Tournament championship. “UConn is still too tough,” shared one seasoned Red Storm fan. His friend countered, “No team played them better during the last month of last year than St. John’s.”

When asked who would be team leaders at the season’s end, Kadary Richmond, expectedly, received votes, while one picked R.J. Luis becoming the team’s leading scorer.

Lastly, fans spoke of Vince Iwuchukwu’s play. One fan commented, “He’s so big that opponents inbounding a pass under the Johnnies basket have difficulty doing so”. Another shared that his offensive moves were “better than expected”.

First Half

Starters for St. John’s were Kadary Richmond, Deivon Smith, Zuby Ejiofor, Simeon Wilcher, and R.J. Luis. It was a three-guard lineup that Coach Pitino predicted would start as he plans to “experiment with lineups” in early season games. Aaron Scott did not start, as he had been battling the flu. He would only play three minutes late in the first quarter.

Carnesecca Arena was alive with chants of “defense” from the opening tip-off. Quinnipiac’s Ryan Mabrey made the game’s first basket on a long three-pointer. R.J. Luis drove, pump-faked, then made a layup and cut the lead to one. Deivon Smith pulled down a rebound and attacked on the fastbreak to put St. John’s ahead, 4-3.

A second Luis layup assisted by Smith was followed by a second triple from Mabrey, tying the game at six with 16:26 to play.

For the next minute and a half, Smith and Mabrey battled for buckets. Smith nailed three, then Mabrey again responded, Smith converting all three free throws after being fouled on a long three point attempt from the left wing.

A fan commented, “Smith looks good, but that number 7 on Quinnipiac (Ryan Mabrey) is keeping them in the game.”

A 12-3 Quinnipiac run, which included two more long threes from Mabrey, put the Bobcats ahead by six at the 12:19 mark, a fast-paced offensive game over the first seven and a half minutes.

Quinnipiac drilled five of their first nine triples, all off Mabrey makes, whose movement without the ball found open perimeter spaces in the Johnnies’ unorganized defense.

During a two-minute sequence, Ejiofor blocked a Bobcat shot at 11:44, blocked a second shot less than a minute later, hit a layup at 9:58 with to play in the half, and blocked a third shot at 9:43. Yeoman’s work from Ejiofor brought the Johnnies back to within two at 21-19.

Quinnipiac opened up a seven-point lead with 4:49 to play in the half. Kadary Richmond and R.J. Luis each found Brady Dunlap open from deep for two three-pointers before the half ended, dropping the Bobcat lead to 39-35 at the intermission.

Halftime

Fans were clear in admiring Quinnipiac for shooting the ball well and playing disciplined basketball. St. John’s, who had prided themselves in their defensive play, had only turned the Bobcats over four times. All fans agreed that the Johnnies needed to step up the defense from the very beginning of the second half.

Second Half

R.J. Luis scored eight points in the first half and was ready coming out of the locker room, putting back his own miss twenty seconds into the half, eventually finishing with 16 second-half points when the final buzzer sounded.

Luis was not the only Johnny who stepped up his game. Sophomore Brady Dunlap scored 14 in the second half, adding three more three-pointers as the Johnnies embarked on a run after the half began.

Kadary Richmond only scored three points in the game, but his playmaking excelled. He threaded a pass between Quinnipiac defenders and created an old-fashioned three-pointer for Luis – a layup and a foul shot. The Red Storm never looked back, with only one tie score of 43 twelve seconds later. Then an explosive dunk by Wilcher through the Bobcat zone and a three off a Smith dime put the Johnnies at 48-43 and they wouldn’t relinquish the lead.

The energized fans in the building began enthusiastically calling out “defense… defense”. At the 15:30 mark, St. John’s converted 43 percent of all their field goal attempts and 43 percent of their threes, with some credit belonging to Dunlap’s long range accuracy.

Richmond demonstrated his offensive prowess at the 9:45 mark, not by scoring but by taking down an offensive rebound, feeding the ball to Smith, who forwarded the pass to Iwuchukwu for a resounding dunk bringing fans to their feet. The score was 68-52 on the way to an impressive 96-73 final score. Luis led all scorers with 24 points followed by Dunlap with a career-best 20 points, who sank five triples.

Takeaway #1: Disrupting defense emerged in the second half

In the first half, Red Storm defenders seemed out of position at times by leaving Bobcat shooters, particularly Ryan Mabrey, open for uncontested three-pointers. Mabrey obliged by hitting five in the first six minutes of the game. The Bobcats led by four points after his last triple. Two minutes later, at an official timeout, defensive adjustments were made, and Mabrey only scored two points over the remainder of the game.

Despite making these adjustments to control Mabrey, the Bobcats countered with their own changes in strategy. The four-point lead grew to seven at one point, with the Johnnies battling back, cutting the lead to four going into halftime.

Coming out of the half, the team was different. The team led by Luis and Smith sped the game up, but the Bobcats could not respond. Johnnie’s players were more focused on their defensive assignments. The Bobcats, who kept themselves in the game with their three-point shooting in the first half, only hit two out of thirteen attempts to a now-disciplined Red Storm defense.

Takeaway #2: Foul shooting is improving

The Johnnies made 22-of-26 free throw attempts, an 84.4% completion rate. Facing Towson in the preseason, the completion rate was a troublesome 65.4 percent. A week later, in the season opener against Fordham, the rate rose to a respectable 73.3 percent. On Saturday against Quinnipiac, St. John’s made an excellent 84.4 percent of their charity stripe tries.

None of the games were close, tension-packed games, which made free throw shooting more challenging in tense moments. Nevertheless, making free throws at an over 80% rate for the team bodes well.

Takeaway #3: Unselfish play leading to three-point success

A burning question was raised after the Fordham game: do the Johnnies have a reliable three-point shooter, and are his teammates creating opportunities for him? Dunlap shot five for seven from out deep for the game. His success is equally attributed to his perfect form, hours of practice, and his teammates’ court vision that found him when open and got him the ball. Richmond assisted him twice, Smith twice, and Luis once. The team’s unselfishness is demonstrated by having 20 of the team’s 32 made field goals coming off assists. There is little isolation play amongst this year’s team, and that is predictive of future success.

Outlook

St. John’s plays one more “buy” game against Wagner on November 13th, then the season gets really interesting. However, the team needs to focus on one opponent at a time. Rick Pitino told the media after the game that the two practices before the Quinnipiac game were poor. The team needs to focus not only on games but also on practice and take every game, whoever the opponent, seriously.

Fans saw the emergence of Brady Dunlap last year as a three-point specialist but also saw him dropping off as the season progressed. The confidence his teammates are demonstrating as they look for him hopefully will find Dunlap providing one of the needed pieces for success this year.

The play of Simeon Wilcher and R.J. Luis is equally encouraging. Across the roster, there are many players demonstrating the potential for the team to grow together as a formidable unit, no matter who the opponent. One game at a time. The game with Wagner is an important opportunity for the players to grow together. So far the future is bright.