The St John’s Red Storm had arguably the most important win of their season when they defeated the Creighton Bluejays, currently ranked No. 12 in the Associated Press poll, 80-66 on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. The Red Storm were 16-12 overall, and 8-9 in Big East Conference play heading into last night’s (Wednesday) road game against the Butler Bulldogs.
Senior guard Daniss Jenkins, who played for St John’s head coach Rick Pitino a year ago at Iona, scored a team-high 27 points versus Creighton and became the team’s leading scorer after 28 games at 14.8 points per contest, edging out senior center Joel Soriano, who stood at 14.7 points per game before facing Butler after a subpar 12-point, seven-rebound effort on Sunday.
Despite defeating a top-12 team, the Red Storm needs to close out the conference regular season schedule strongly and have a deep run in the Big East Tournament, which begins on March 13 at the Garden, to have a favorable possibility to make the NCAA Tournament field of 68.
“I’d say, I hope so, but I don’t have a crystal ball here,” Pitino said after the victory over Creighton regarding St. John’s being an at-large NCAA team if they don’t win the Big East Tournament and earn an automatic bid.
After a 12-4 start, the Red Storm dropped eight of their next 10 games to fall to 14-12 before a road win over Georgetown on February 21. It was their first time taking two straight since capturing four in a row from December 30 to January 10.
“I think that we were fabulous tonight,” Pitino said of his team after their showing against Creighton, “and I think the thing that they learned more than anything else, obviously [the] defense was very good, but to just move the basketball and then your talented ball players don’t come down and just take bad shots.”
Pitino, who publicly and harshly criticized the Red Storm players after giving up a 19-point lead in losing to Seton Hall 68-62 on February 18, apologized three days later during the postgame press conference after a 90-85 win over Georgetown.
On Sunday, Jenkins explained his team’s mentality during their 2-8 stretch that took them out of solid NCAA Tournament consideration.
“In those other games, when we lost in the second half, we were playing not to lose, like, scared to win the game,” said Jenkins, alluding to one-point losses to No. 5 Marquette and Creighton, and a four-point loss to No. 3 Connecticut.
“It’s a lot of pressure on every shot, a lot of pressure on this defensive possession, a lot of pressure on whether you help or not,” Jenkins said. “Just thinking too much and worrying about the score.”In the victory over Creighton, Jenkins noticed a change. “I didn’t look at the scoreboard. Not one time in that second half.”
The Red Storm will be at DePaul next Tuesday and at Madison Square Garden on March 9 to end their Big East regular season schedule.
