There was the obvious looming question of how the St. John’s basketball team would respond from its crushing loss to No. 15 Iowa State a day earlier and the No. 14 Johnnies passed its test with flying colors.
The Red Storm went wire-to-wire against Baylor (4-1), winning 96-81 and landing its first meaningful victory of the season.
Despite its first half rebounding deficiencies, St. John’s (4-2) turned in its best performance of the season with stifling defense and prolific offense.
“It was a good bounce back game off a devastating loss for us,” Rick Pitino said after the victory.
Bryce Hopkins led the charge with 26 points, five rebounds, and five assists – his best game since joining the Red Storm – while Oziyah Sellers continued his hot shooting in Las Vegas with 22 points on five 3-pointers.
The two combined to shoot 15-of-23 from the floor and 8-of-10 from 3-point range.
“I haven’t begged very often about players shooting the ball, but I begged [Hopkins and Sellers] to take more shots, and they did tonight. They were both brilliant,” Pitino added.
St. John’s lead grew to as many as 23 points, 87-64, in the second half
“I think this team has potential to be a good team as we grow, but they’re new to each other. We see a lot of mistakes by being new to each other.”
One of those areas to improve will be the rebounding battle as Baylor pulled down 26 offensive rebounds which resulted in 21 second chance points.
“It’s just something we’re capable of doing a better job and I know they’re hungry.”
It was a strange opening to the game, St. John’s came out of the gates on fire behind the shooting of Sellers who made his first three shots of the game – all 3-pointers.
The hot start resulted in a 15-point lead, 21-6, before Baylor settled in and started to make shots after its 2-of-18 beginning. The Bears dominated the Red Storm on the glass, pulling down 17 offensive rebounds prior to halftime which led to 12 second chance points.
“I think that in the first seven, eight minutes of the game we could have given the Knicks a game before losing by 40,” Pitino joked. “It was a brilliant first eight minutes of the game.”
St. John’s will play on Wednesday in its final game of the Players Era Festival, but the time of the game and opponent will be determined at the conclusion of Tuesday’s games.