Red Storm Capture Back-to-Back Road Wins

Written By Jack Sargente

On Saturday, February 5th the St. John’s Red Storm travelled to the legendary Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana to take on the Butler Bulldogs. Both teams have been struggling to find their rhythm in conference play and needed this game to jumpstart a late season push. The stage was set for a good battle in the Big East as time left to turn things around is starting to dwindle for both squads.

The first half was a back-and-forth affair as the score would be knotted from beginning to end while both teams were scoring at a high rate. To say the least, defense was lacking in the first 20 minutes of play and both teams were scoring at ease. Butler especially looked like they could do no wrong as they shot nearly 50% from three and 57% from the field as they were able to get any shot they wanted to on the St. John’s defense. Even though both teams were playing poor defense, it was especially alarming as Butler was able to have full control of the game and were playing at their pace. Usually, the Red Storm like to get out and run in transition off of the opponents' turnovers and misses but Butler was able to slow down the game and get points in their halfcourt offense. Nevertheless, the Johnnies were able to overcome an inadequate defensive performance with very efficient shooting of their own as the would also shoot above 50% from the field. Along with efficient shooting, St. John’s was able to get a couple more shots up as they had the advantage in offensive rebounding and also took and made 3 more free throws than the Bulldogs. Four of the five starters had more than 5 points to end the half including star Julian Champagnie who would show up for the second game in a row after a four game streak of games under 10 points. The half would culminate with the teams swapping three-pointers as Dylan Adde-Wusu would hit a three pointer with 1 second left to tie the score up at 41-41 as the teams went into the locker room.

The second half would be opened would be opened with buckets from the games two leading scorers Bo Hodges and Julian Champagnie. The St. John’s defense would struggle to contain the Bulldogs’ leading scorer Bo Hodges as he would have 10 points in the first 6 minutes of the second half, giving Butler a 57-48 lead. But, St. John’s big man Joel Soriano would come back down with two buckets to cut the deficit back down to 5. Since Bo Hodges hit back-to-back threes with over 14 minutes left the St. John’s defense would Styme Butler’s offense as they would hold them scoreless for over four minutes as they recaptured the lead at 58-57. The last ten minutes of the game would not be pretty on the offensive end as there were only 8 made field goals between both teams. Outside of a pair of jumpers from Aaron Wheeler and a layup from Joel Soriano, the rest of the Johnnies points would come from the free throw line which would be the difference maker in this game. While Butler was struggling to score towards the end of the game they were settling for deep shots and were not able to get to the line, while the Red Storm were attacking the rim and forcing the refs to make a call. This was especially impressive as for the last 3:26 St. John’s would be missing its playmaking point guard Posh Alexander who would go down with an ankle injury and would not return to the game. The stat that tells the story of the game is that St. John’s made 21 free throws compared to Butler’s 4 made free throws. Butler was able to make shots from the outside for the first half but once those were taken away they had trouble scoring and it would end up in a 75-72 St. John’s win. Being down 9 and losing Posh Alexander gave the Johnnies every opportunity to throw in the towel, but they scratched and clawed back into the game and were able to add another road win to their resume.

The past two games have been very encouraging for the Red Storm as they have gotten road wins against Georgetown and Butler as well as getting back-to-back twenty-point outings from Julian Champagnie. Although the Johnnies will need to beat some good teams down the stretch, this is a good start as they will head back to New York City with two ranked opponents waiting for them. The first of those two games will be against the 15th ranked Villanova Wildcats at Madison Square Garden which will be aired on FS1 at 8:30 P.M.