St. John’s basketball looking for Top-10 victory over No. 9 Creighton

St. John’s basketball is looking for a signature victory over No. 9 Creighton on Thursday night.

Following a heartbreaking loss against Georgetown on Sunday night, the St. John’s basketball program will be looking to bounce back at home on Thursday.

The Red Storm (5-3, 0-2) host No. 9 Creighton (4-2, 0-1) who will also enter Queens following a loss as the Blue Jays squandered a 12-point cushion over Marquette on Monday night.

Creighton has dropped two of its last three games as the other loss came in heartbreaking fashion against the Kansas Jayhawks.

Greg McDermott‘s team has the Big East Preseason Player of the Year with Marcus Zegarowski, averaging 13.8 points per game, but Creighton is led by forward Denzel Mahoney, who averages 16.2 points per game.

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Following the NCAA’s ruling to pass a blanket waiver on all transfers this season, Thursday night could be the Creighton debut of Duke transfer Alex O’Connell who averaged 5.2 points per game with the Blue Devils last season.

St. John’s and Creighton have a long history with each other in two and a half games since head coach Mike Anderson took over in Queens as the Blue Jays soundly defeated the Johnnies in Omaha last season but the Red Storm ran Creighton out of Carnesecca Arena in the second meeting between the programs.

Greg Williams Jr. drilled seven of the team’s 14 3-pointers en route to a 20-point victory.

Lastly, no one will forget the last time St. John’s and Creighton played as the teams did not return for the second half at Madison Square Garden in the final game attempted to be played prior to the shutdown of the season because fo COVID-19.

St. John’s basketball has many things to clean up against Creighton.

Creighton heavily relies on the 3-point ball and the St. John’s defense has not been up to the standards of head coach Mike Anderson.

In order to pull off a shocker at home, the Johnnies are going to have to be more physical than the Blue Jays, win the battle in the paint, and run Creighton off the 3-point line.

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St. John’s cannot try and match each 3-pointer Creighton makes as the Blue Jays shoot 37.5-percent from the field and 50.8-percent from the floor.

Tipoff has been moved from 5:00pm EST to 7:00pm EST and can be seen on Fox Sports 1.

PREDICTION: Creighton 81, St. John’s 72