The St. John’s basketball team dominated Providence at home in Sunday matinee
The St. John’s basketball team cruised past the Providence Friars, 65-47, inside Carnesecca Arena on Sunday afternoon.
The victory secured the split of the regular season series between the two programs after Friars handed the Red Storm a 76-53 loss back on December 19.
It was a great response for the Red Storm after suffering a lopsided home defeat to No. 1 UConn on Wednesday night.
In a season where just about everything that could go wrong for the Johnnies, Sunday was a day that was a lot more positive.
St. John’s struggled to start the game, shooting 3-for-9 in the early first quarter, but settled in and grabbed a 13-12 lead heading into the second quarter.
Despite a 15-2 run in the second quarter, Providence was able to cut the Red Storm’s lead down to five, 32-27, at halftime.
ALSO READ: St. John’s suffers back-breaking loss against DePaul
Then, St. John’s dominated in the third quarter, outscoring the Friars 16-8 and the team wouldn’t look back.
The Red Storm dominated this game thanks to some balanced scoring across the board as four players finished the game in double figures.
Sophomore Unique Drake poured in a game-high 17 points.
Junior forward Raven Peeples also finished with a 12-point, 13-rebound double-double despite battling some foul trouble early on and Kadaja Bailey chipped in 12-points.
Leilani Correa, the Big East Conference third-leading scorer, had a poor start to the game but still managed to fill up the stat sheet with 15 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, and five steals despite shooting just 5-of-15 from the field.
The balanced effort offensively across the board for the Red Storm is something to build upon for the final games of the regular season and gather momentum for the Big East Tournament.
St. John’s has struggled to find a consistent scoring presence outside of Correa, especially after senior Qadashah Hoppie went down with a season-ending shoulder injury.
St. John’s basketball head coach Joe Tartamella hits historic milestone in win
The win for the Red Storm on Sunday moves head coach Joe Tartamella into second place on the all-time wins leaderboard in program history.
Tartamella now has 169 career wins as a head coach, leaping current Villanova associate head coach Joe Mullaney.
Joe Tartamella is just seven wins behind his mentor Kim Barnes Arico. who holds the top spot with 176 wins.
ALSO READ: No. 1 UConn, Paige Bueckers display brilliance
Barnes Arico, who is the current head coach at Michigan, had Tartamella join her staff in Queens in 2005 as an assistant coach.
Next up, the Red Storm will take on the Georgetown Hoyas in Carnesecca Arena on Wednesday, February 24 at 4:00pm EST (Big East Digital Network) looking to sweep the season series between the two programs.