St. John's basketball rolls dismal DePaul with record amount of 3-pointers

It wasn't needed for the St. John's basketball team. It was necessary.

The Red Storm had to blowout dismal DePaul, which has become a laughing stock at the bottom of the Big East.

It did, 85-57, and snapped a two game losing streak, setting up a critical week ahead for its NCAA Tournament hopes.

The change in philosophy was very apparent from the Johnnies, which constantly let shots fly from 3-point range. "Keep shooting," was the message to the team from Rick Pitino.

They listened.

St. John's (14-9, 6-6 Big East) made 15-of-40 3-pointers, both season highs and the most ever made by the program in a Big East game, after only making 16 3-pointers in its last four combined games.

Jordan Dingle, who was 3-of-22 from 3-point range since January 2, made 4-of-10 attempts and finished with 14 points on the night.

"I wasn't upset with Jordan Dingle for going 0-for-11 [in his last three games from 3-point range], I was upset that he didn't try to go 0-for-25," Pitino explained.

Dingle is a lethal shooter, according to the Hall of Famer, in practice and during player development drills but it hasn't translated to games yet, shooting 29.1-percent from distance entering Tuesday's game.

"Coach Pitino promised me before the game he wasn't going to yell at me anymore for contested shots," Dingle said. Pitino corrected him and explained he told him to "take as many open shots as [he] wants."

The UPenn transfer also finished with five rebounds, four assists, two steals, and no turnovers.

Daniss Jenkins exited with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting, 4-of-6 from 3-point range, and Joel Soriano had 11 points and eight rebounds.

St. John's took an 11-point lead at halftime, 38-29, on 18 points from 11 turnovers by DePaul (3-20, 0-12 Big East).

The lead grew to as many as 30 points in the second half as the Red Storm used a 21-4 run to firmly separate themselves from the Blue Demons.

St. John's will travel to No. 7 Marquette (17-5, 8-3 Big East) on Saturday evening (6:00 p.m. ET, FS1) for a major resume building matchup that could catapult the Johnnies safely into the NCAA Tournament conversation.