After unveiling its second straight Big East regular season and tournament championship banners, as well as commemorating its first Sweet 16 appearance since 1999, the St. John’s basketball program looked like a team ready to celebrate more titles in its season opener against Monmouth.
The No. 13 Johnnies raced out to a 17-point lead, behind a 24-4 run, in the opening 12 minutes using its defensive pressure to constantly force turnovers and lead to easy buckets. Monmouth’s 11 turnovers led to 16 points for the Red Storm while building a 45-29 lead at halftime.
Yet St. John’s did not look the same after the break.
The Johnnies struggled to execute in the halfcourt, which resulted in its press not being able to create havoc.
Still, its talent, skill, and athleticism were more than enough to land a comfortable opening night victory, 78-63, in which its lead never dipped under double digits.
"You start off great and then it became sloppy," Quinn Ellis explained. "I think we're really inconsistent right now. I think we have good spurts but then also really bad spurts on both ends of the floor."
"We're not connected. We're not helping one another. We know what their strenghts are and we're not really shutting down their stregnths. I feel like we have to get way more consistent."
Keyshawn Hall led the team in the first half with 20 points, making his opening six shots from the field, and finished with 26 points. Then, it was Ian Jackson’s turn.
Jackson, after sitting for the final 8:17 of the first half with two fouls, scored 13 of his 15 points after halftime, fouling out with 3:28 remaining, and led a St. John’s offense that didn’t get much production from other positions on the court.
"The first ten minutes of the game was a devastating defensive performance, then the rest of the game was not very good by us, especially on defense," Rick Pitino said.
"And offensively, we were stagnant. We stood around a lot and played as if we had Shaquille O'Neal in the low post instead of creating ball movement and player movement."
Quinn Ellis stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, five rebounds, seven assists, and five steals but Tounde Yessoufou, who did not start, and Ruben Prey combined for just 14 points on 3-of-13 shooting. International player Zsombor Maronka started in place of Yessoufou and did not score in 12 minutes.
St. John’s 3-point shooting woes from the preseason carried over into the opener, making only 6-for-20 attempts. Jackson and Hall were 4-for-8 while the rest of the team was 2-of-12 from distance.
The Red Storm will make its Madison Square Garden regular season debut on Sunday afternoon (12:00 p.m. ET) against Iona.
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