St. John’s basketball returns to loss column over the weekend

The St. John’s Basketball returned to the loss column in setbacks against DePaul and Marquette

The St. John’s basketball team came up empty in two weekend games in a road matchup against DePaul and a home contest against Marquette.

On Friday night in Chicago the Red Storm got into a shootout with the Blue Demons, similar to the 103-97 contest that the two teams played to at Carnesecca Arena in December.

Despite a valiant effort, the Johnnies fell short, 94-88.

St. John’s kept it close for most of the game, trailing 46-42 at halftime, and then tied the score at 69 after three quarters.

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DePaul would pull away late outscoring the Johnnies 25-19 in the fourth quarter and finishing the game on a 10-4 run.

Kadaja Bailey led the way for St. John’s with 24 points and was a rebound short of a double-double.

Danielle Patterson had a career-high 20 points, 12 of them coming in the first half, and Unique Drake had 16 points.

Camree Clegg also notched 10 points off the bench as four of the five starters for the Red Storm finished in double figures.

However, the Red Storm just did not have enough defense to outlast DePaul.

St. John’s basketball still looking for record setting victory

After the tough loss, St. John’s would come back home to face Marquette at Carnesecca Arena on Sunday.

The game was a close contest from start to finish, but the defense was better for the Red Storm.

St. John’s would find itself down 36-32 at halftime and came swinging out of the gates in the second half, going on an 8-0 run across the first three minutes of the third quarter to tie the game up at 40.

The Red Storm went into the final ten minutes of the contest down 47-46.

Late in the 4th quarter, the Johnnies would rally to take a lead twice on made 3-pointers from Unique Drake and Danielle Cosgrove to make it a 60-59 and 63-62 game, respectively.

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However, the Golden Eagles would put together some huge offensive possessions to close out the Red Storm, 70-65.

St. John’s had three players in double figures with Leilani Correa leading the way with 17 points, Kadaja Bailey had 15 points, and Drake finished with 12 points. Rayven Pepples had six points and  one of her best performances on the backboards with 11 rebounds.

The Johnnies (6-14, 2-8 Big East) have now lost two straight after breaking its eight-game losing streak.

St. John’s will look to make head coach Joe Tartamella the winningest coach in program history on Wednesday night against Xavier (7-12, 2-8 Big East).

The Musketeers have lost the last 11 straight meetings against St. John’s, dating back to 2015.