The St. John’s basketball team was severely shorthanded entering its matchup with DePaul on Wednesday night in Chicago, but it didn’t matter.
Despite only having nine players available with the injuries to RJ Luis (groin), Jaiden Glover (wrist), Vince Iwuchukwu (illness), and Brady Dunlap (abdomen) the No. 10 Johnnies rolled to an 82-58 victory over the Blue Demons.
The absence of Luis wasn’t filled by the likes of Kadary Richmond or Zuby Ejiofor, it was seldom used role player Sadiku Ibine-Ayo who had the first half of a lifetime
He made his first four shots, two of which were 3-pointers, before finishing the half with 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from 3-point range – it gave St. John’s a 16-point advantage at halftime and never looked back.
Ibine Ayo’s previous career-high was eight points. He had only scored 20 points over the course of the entire season. He never made more than two 3-pointers in an entire game.
“He deserves it,” Rick Pitino said. “He’s the biggest cheerleader on the team for the other guys. He epitomizes everything about the word ‘team’.”
Every career statistic you could find on the junior from Ghana was broken in Chicago. He couldn’t keep pace in the second half, missing both of his shot attempts, but adding two points at the free throw line to cap off a 15-point showing with five rebounds and two assists.
“He stayed prepared, he’s always working, never complains, never says anything, so I’m happy to see him have a game like this,” Kadary Richmond added.
Luis, Richmond, and Pitino all gave Ibine Ayo encouragement prior to the game when it was announced that he would be starting.
“It’s amazing,” Ibine Ayo said. “Coach always being hard on me all the time, I think it paid off.”
However, the Johnnies (23-4, 14-2 Big East) still called in the heavy hitters to finish the game.
Kadary Richmond, who has been playing through a groin injury over the last two weeks, scored 15 points after halftime to end the night with 19 points – in addition to nine rebounds and five assists – while Deivon Smith continued to showcase his improved health with 18 points.
Shooting was not a concern for St. John’s against DePaul’s (11-13, 2-14) spotty defense, making 46.4-percent of its attempts from the field and 42.9-percent from 3-point range. Its defense limited the Blue Demons to 32.7-percent.
The Johnnies maintain its two-game lead atop the Big East standings with just four regular season games remaining as welcomes UConn (18-8, 10-5 Big East) inside Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon (12:00 p.m. ET, FOX).