Red Storm Snap Losing Streak with Road Win

Written By: Jack Sargente

On Wednesday, February 14th a desperate St. John’s Red Storm team went into Cintas Arena to take on the Xavier Musketeers in a Big East battle. Both teams came into the game stumbling as of late as St. John’s lost two in a row and Xavier has lost 3 of their last 4. This was a game that both teams needed, but especially St. John’s as Xavier was ranked in the top 25 just last week and would be the Red Storm’s third straight opportunity to pick up a second Quad 1 win for their resume.

The first half was very highly contested and there was no shortage of scoring from start to finish. The game started out at a slower pace as both teams were able to get into their half court sets, which helped Xavier get easy buckets in the paint. Xavier’s center Jack Nunge would give the Johnnies defense problems throughout most of the game including 4 out of the team’s first 6 points. But after a 6-2 start for Xavier, St. John’s would go on a quick 11-0 run which made the score 13-6 as star Julian Champagnie already had 8 of those points. The Red Storm were doing a great job of moving on offense without the ball, which they have improved on in the past couple of games, as almost every bucket they scored in the first half came off an assist. When St. John’s play like this their offense is much more consistent as they’re not relying on one guy to go and score. The Red Storm then held a 6-point lead until Xavier got a huge boost off their bench as Adam Kunkel would score 8 points straight including back-to-back threes as the Musketeers would take a 19-17 lead. The Johnnies would then go on another run as they scored 9 points straight as Posh Alexander got in the game for the first time since he went down with an ankle injury against Butler. Posh helped defensively as they were able to get out in transition off steals and missed shots, the run would be capped off by a posh layup to take a 26-19 lead. The Musketeers were then able to close the deficit as their two leading scorers, Jack Nunge and Zach Freemantle, ended the half with 13 and 8 points respectively. Although St. John’s was able to hold a lead at half as they were able to run in transition and have a balanced attack on offense. The Red Storm led 45-42 at half as Julian Champagnie scored 15 points while Montez Mathis added 8 points and Tareq Coburn contributed 6 points from off the bench.

The second half started off as a back-and-forth battle, as Aaron Wheeler and Jack Nunge were the main contributors for each side as the Red Storm still held a 2-point lead through 6 minutes of play. Scoring then came hard to come by for both sides, especially the Johnnies as they only scored 2 points in the matter of five minutes and trailed by one point. Tareq Coburn then scored the next 7 points of the game as St. John’s held a 63-57 lead with 8 minutes left. Xavier then closed the deficit to three until the Red Storm went on a 13-2 run that had them up 78-64 as Julian Champagnie hit a jumper with 2:42 left in the game. That run would ultimately decide the game as St. John’s held a double digit lead the rest of the way and came away with a big road win as they beat the Xavier Musketeers 86-73. On the offensive side of the ball St. John’s was aided by an offensive explosion from Julian Champagnie who scored 27 points as he attacked the Xavier defense from all over the floor. Montez Mathis and Aaron Wheeler also added 10 and 11 on very efficient shooting; but the main boost on offense was Tareq Coburn burning the Musketeers from deep as he scored 13 points after only scoring 5 is his last three games combined. On defense, the Red Storm struggled in the first half as Jack Nunge was beating them down inside and also stretched out the defense by knocking down a three-pointer. But in the latter part of the second half, Nunge was held to 2 points in the last 5 minutes as St. John’s went on their game winning run.

All in all, this was probably the most impressive win the Red Storm have had all year and hopefully can propel them on a late season run through the Big East tournament, which is probably their best chance of making the NCAA tournament as of now. St. John’s returns to action on Friday February 18th as they take on the Butler Bulldogs at home at 5 P.M. and can be watched on CBS Sports Network.