St. John’s basketball explodes offensively to defeat Utah

The St. John’s basketball team used an offensive explosion to end its week in Charleston. 

A bounce back game was needed for the St. John’s basketball team after a disappointing loss on Friday to Dayton, and the Johnnies delivered.

The Red Storm put together its most complete game of the year, behind a stellar shooting night from its offense, in a 91-82 victory over Utah in the 3rd Place Game of the Charleston Classic.

The pace of the first half was chaotic, but dictated by the speed of the Johnnies compared to the height advantage of the Utes.

Despite St. John’s holding a 9-point lead at halftime, 52-43, Utah would start the second half on an 11-0 run to take a 54-52 lead, its first since the game was 7-5, but the Red Storm would respond with six straight points and never look back.

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“I just want [the team] playing fast and with offensive confidence,” Rick Pitino said.

Four different players reached double-figures, led by 19 points from Daniss Jenkins, but it was Jordan Dingle who impressed the most with his best game in a St. John’s uniform with 18 points, three rebounds, and five assist on 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range.

“He’s getting better and better,” Pitino said of his starting shooting guard after the victory.

“He’s showing what he is because he’s getting used to the rest of the guys.”

St. John’s basketball guard ready to explode

After sitting out most of the preseason with various injuries, the Penn transfer was finally able to showcase his athleticism early in the second half with a dunk over Utah’s Gabe Madsen that brought the entire crowd in TD Arena to its feet.

“I think that I’m in a pretty good rhythm. I’m definitely starting to get my wind back and get used to the system,” Dingle explained.

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“The best thing about tonight was that we finally played closer to a complete game.”

The Red Storm shot 53.0-percent from the field, 50.0-percent from 3-point range, and had 19 assists on 35 baskets.

St. John’s will return to New York with 3-2 record after going 2-1 in Charleston and only play four games over the next three weeks, beginning with a matchup against Holy Cross (2-4) on Saturday night (7:00p.m. EST, FoxSports2) in Queens.