The St. John’s basketball team needed a spark entering Tuesday’s game against Butler and even more so when they were littered with foul trouble in the first half, and it was one of its returners who stepped up and met the moment.
Ruben Prey hasn’t had many marquee moments in his short time with the Red Storm. His clutch 3-pointer in the final minutes of St. John’s victory over Seton Hall which clinched the Big East regular season title for the Johnnies might be the biggest, but his steady improvement has been extremely noticeable.
Against the Bulldogs he proved why Rick Pitino thinks so highly of him with 10 points, two steals, and a blocked shot on 4-of-5 shooting from the field and making both of his 3-point attempts.
“The team has always had trust in me,” Prey said after the game. “It’s not something that just happened today. I feel confident when I go in, and I know my teammates have my back.”
His 3-pointer at the buzzer of the first half tied the game at 42 and gave St. John’s all the momentum it needed to run Butler out of the gym, outscoring the Bulldogs by 14 points in the second half.
“We have trust in everybody on the floor,” Bryce Hopkins explained. “We’ve seen It all summer and in practice. Ruben is a great player, has great confidence in himself, and when he came in, we all had confidence that he was going to pick up right where we left off.”
St. John’s also beefed up its frontcourt by playing Prey next to Zuby Ejiofor and it paid dividends with the Red Storm only conceding six offensive rebounds in the game when Butler entered Butler ranked No. 16 in the country in offensive rebounding rate at 38.9-percent, according to KenPom.
“Ruben is the consummate team player,” Rick Pitino said. “He doesn’t complain about his minutes, but he could play for just about any team in the country. Next year, he’ll get his starting role for the first time and play a lot, but he stepped in tonight and gave us a big lift.”