The St. John’s basketball team continued its hot shooting against St. Peter’s on Saturday afternoon.
It was hard to draw conclusions from the St. John’s basketball opening night victory over Mississippi Valley State but a step up in competition against St. Peter’s on Saturday showed what the Johnnies are capable of.
The Red Storm shot 69.2-percent from the field on Tuesday night and 52.0-percent from 3-point range and that carried over to the weekend.
St. John’s capped off its 91-70 victory over St. Peter’s by shooting 50.8-percent from the floor (30-of-59) and 44.8-percent from downtown (13-of-29).
“I was very encouraged with what I saw in the game. When you start seeing those things come about, you start having success,” head coach Mike Anderson said following the game.
Anderson’s team was led by Julian Champagnie and his 22 points and four rebounds on 6-of-13 shooting, 5-of-10 from deep.
“This has the potential to be a fun basketball team,” the St. John’s head coach continued.
Sophomore guard Posh Alexander continued his impressive shooting start as the reigning Big East Freshman of the Year fell one assist shy of his first career double-double with 12 points and nine assists.
Nine of the 11 players who were in the main rotation for St. John’s scored at least three points.
The St. John’s defense was able to force 16 turnovers as well as limiting star forward K.C. Ndefo to just five points in 12 minutes of action.
“I think we’re playing a lot better defense, especially in the past few days,” Champagnie told the media.
Aaron Wheeler was the only other player in the St. John’s rotation to crack double figures with 10 points and seven rebounds.
St. John’s basketball sees milestone reached in latest victory
Graduate student Tareq Coburn scored his 1,000 career point with a free throw line jump shot in the second half of the Johnnies’ victory.
Coburn, who posted 976 career points in his one season at St. Bonaventure and three years at Hofstra, has scored 30 points thus far in his St. John’s career, 17 coming in Saturday’s game.
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St. John’s will hit the road in its next game for the first time this season for its toughest test to date as the Indiana Hoosiers await at Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
Tipoff is scheduled for 9:00pm EST on Wednesday, November 17 (FoxSports1).