St. John’s basketball looks to build three-game winning streak on road

St. John’s basketball will travel to DePaul to face the Blue Demons on Wednesday night. 

There has only been one three-game winning streak for the St. John’s basketball team this season, but the Red Storm has a chance to put together its second with a victory over DePaul on Wednesday night.

The Johnnies knocked off St. Peter’s, La Salle, and Boston College to start the 2020-21 campaign before dropping a winnable matchup with BYU.

Since, Mike Anderson’s team never found consistent play to win enough games in a row until recently when then team has appeared to turn a corner as February approaches.

St. John’s defeated Butler and dropped another winnable matchup against Marquette before going on the road to knockoff then No. 23 UConn and returning to non-conference play with a beatdown of Utah Valley on Saturday afternoon.

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However, then Red Storm were not the only Big East program to secure a win on Saturday as the Blue Demons picked up its first conference victory on the road against the Golden Eagles.

DePaul did not begin its season until December 23 because of COVID-19 protocols and started the season with a victory over Western Illinois before dropping four straight Big East games.

Dave Leito’s team responded with a non-conference victory over Valparaiso before falling back into the conference losing streak against Butler.

Preseason All-Big East selection Charlie Moore led the way for DePaul with 22 points against Marquette and is averaging 13.9 points per game.

St. John’s and DePaul were scheduled to meet in Queens on January 2 before the game was postponed minutes before tipoff because of a false positive COVID-19 test with the Red Storm.

St. John’s basketball must rely on its defense

DePaul has only scored over 70 points once in Big East play this season, a double-overtime loss to Providence where the Blue Demons went for 90 points in the defeat.

A short-handed UConn team held DePaul to 53 points at home in a loss to the Huskies and Butler held the program to the same amount of points, also in a home defeat.

St. John’s could be without junior guard Greg Williams Jr. (back) who was limited to six minutes, none in the second half against the Huskies, and did not play against Utah Valley.

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The Johnnies have since relied on the stellar play of freshman point guard Posh Alexander and sophomore forward Julian Champagnie, averaging 10.5 and 19.9 points per game, respectively.

Rasheem Dunn, Marcellus Earlington, Dylan Addae-Wusu, and Josh Roberts all have made positive contributions in St. John’s recent turnaround and that must continue against a hungry DePaul team who is motivated to get out of the basement of the Big East.

Wednesday night starts yet another big week for the Red Storm who will host a James Bouknight-less UConn team on Sunday afternoon in Queens.

Two victories will move St. John’s one game below .500 in the Big East after starting conference play 1-5.

Tipoff is scheduled for 9:00pm EST (Fox Sports 1) inside Wintrust Arena.

PREDICTION: St. John’s 72, DePaul 64