St. John’s basketball picks up biggest victory of season against Seton Hall

The St. John’s basketball team picked up its biggest victory of the season against Seton Hall. 

“I left everything in Florida,” St. John’s basketball head coach Joe Tartamella said on Sunday afternoon.

Tartamella, who is now three wins away from being the program’s all-time winningest coach, saw his team swept in three games in as many days last week against Penn State, Charlotte, and No. 19 UCLA.

“I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t a big game,” Tartamella explained and his team sure played like it.

Hosting Seton Hall (4-4, 0-1 Big East) in the conference opener, St. John’s (4-4, 1-0 Big East) trailed once in the game, 2-0, and never let the Pirates get closer than three points following the first quarter.

The Johnnies went on to secure its biggest victory of the season, 88-75.

A quartet of players propelled the Red Storm to victory, its two returning stars Leilani Correa and Kadaja Bailey as well as the two impact transfers Danielle Patterson and Danielle Cosgrove.

The four combined for 78 of St. John’s 88 points with Correa leading the way with 24 points and nine rebounds.

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Bailey was perfect from the floor with 23 points on 7-for-7 shooting, making two from 3-point range, as Danielle Patterson recorded a double-double in her Big East Conference debut with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Cosgrove added 15 points and five rebounds in 30 minutes.

St. John’s shot 58.9-percent from the floor and 41.2-percent from deep as that was able to offset the 16 turnovers, more than double of what Seton Hall had, and allowing 14 offensive rebounds.

The Pirates scored 20 points off turnovers yet only had eight second chance points despite all its opportunities.

A 3-pointer from Correa at the halftime buzzer pushed St. John’s lead back to eight, 48-40, as Seton Hall could not get closer than five points of the Red Storm in the second half.

St. John’s led by as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter.

St. John’s basketball sees schedule disruption entering next week

Word came down in the middle of the second half that St. John’s would not be hosting Iona (2-3) on Wednesday as the game has been canceled due to issues involving COVID-19.

Iona has not played since November 23 because of the program being on a pause and its game against the Johnnies will be the third consecutive game that is postponed for the Gaels.

St. John’s will return to the court for another back-to-back as the Johnnies will host LaSalle (5-3) on Saturday before making the short trip to Wager (5-1) on Sunday afternoon.

The games mark the final two of non-conference play for the Red Storm before the schedule solely consists of Big East foes beginning on December 19.