St. John’s Will get Large Win Over Creighton - NetScouts Basketball

New York, NY – St. John’s (16-12) had certainly one of their finest collective performances this season on Sunday to snap #15 ranked Creighton’s (20-8) 4 sport win streak, with an 80-66 victory at Madison Sq. Backyard. The Johnnies staved off each comeback push the Blue Jays tried with relentless protection and regular scoring from the senior beginning backcourt of Jordan Dingle and Daniss Jenkins combining for 45 factors. Trey Alexander scored a season-high 31 factors within the loss for the Blue Jays.

Creighton made a 10-0 run to take the lead again within the first half 25-24 when St. John’s went to their reserves. Alexander kickstarted issues with back-to-back threes. Trey discovered quite a lot of success on offense over the course of this matchup. He was dominant navigating decide and rolls, routinely placing defenders on his again as he snaked middle Ryan Kalkbrenner’s screens, resulting in a number of mid-range pull up jumpshots. Kalkbrenner would do his finest “Gortat” display to offer Trey as a lot respiratory room, and concurrently place himself for second probability factors. Kalkbrenner was their defensive centerpiece, tallying a career-high eight blocks. His huge size gave St. John’s suits they usually paid the worth not respecting it. He didn’t get a lot resistance within the publish both, getting deep within the paint proper into an environment friendly tender hook. Creighton ought to’ve sought extra methods to feed it to him, as he solely completed with 12 factors on 11 photographs.

Creighton struggled to create open appears to be like from the perimeter, resulting in a extremely inefficient 6-of-26 from deep. Baylor Scheierman hit the primary three of the sport earlier than going ice chilly. He’d go 1-of-10 exterior the arc and 4-of-16 from the sector. Steven Ashworth, who was sizzling over the course of their profitable streak, went 1-of-6 from deep this contest. The Blue Jays got here into this sport sixth in 3-pointers made per sport in Division 1 at 10.7. Alexander offered most of their 3-point scoring, flattening 4 of their six makes. All issues thought-about, they have been nonetheless solely down a mere 5 factors on the under-8 media timeout due to Alexander’s herculean effort. However one final run from St. John’s sealed the deal.

Ground common Daniss Jenkins had arguably his finest sport of the yr, impacting all sides of the sport with 27 factors, six assists, two steals and two blocks. He’s been St. John’s engine all season lengthy and performed with such confidence all through the sport. His really feel was unbelievable, and when the sport was nonetheless within the stability he sealed the take care of his personal 11-0 run. Backcourt mate Jordan Dingle offered his personal scoring spark down the stretch with 12 second half factors via mid-range jumpers. Just like Alexander, each guards discovered success exploiting the area contained in the arc when Kalkbrenner was in drop protection. Regardless of his eight blocks, the Purple Storm nonetheless discovered success inside for 34 paint factors. Defensively they have been in sync in all their methods. They confirmed our bodies when Creighton appeared to feed Kalkbrenner down low, and rotated extraordinarily properly to not surrender any open 3-point appears to be like. The unsung hero on this win was Glenn Taylor Jr., getting his first begin after seeing his position diminish. He accrued 10 rebounds, six assists, one block and a steal on the day in his return to the beginning lineup.

St. John’s saved their nationwide match hopes alive with a dominant sport towards a ranked opponent. To come back out on high in a must-win scenario ought to give them the arrogance they should sweep the remainder of their convention video games. They give the impression of being to increase their win-streak to a few on the highway towards Butler on Wednesday, February twenty eighth.

Creighton was recent off an enormous upset themselves, taking down the #1 ranked group within the nation UConn. They could have eased up a bit following that tense match-up earlier within the week, however this loss proved there’s nonetheless room to enhance earlier than the Large East match again at Madison Sq. Backyard. Creighton’s subsequent outing shall be towards a troublesome Seton Corridor crew at house on the twenty eighth as properly.

This text was written by Justin Maldonado, a correspondent and scout for NetScouts Basketball. You’ll be able to comply with us on Facebook, or on twitter.

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