New York, NY—-St. John’s men’s basketball team were trying to rebound from the 73-72 loss against Marquette on Saturday at the Garden, which snapped SJU’s seven game home win streak and boy did they stepped up to the challenge Wednesday night.
Joel Soriano took this game personal scoring 21 points with nine boards to helped St. John’s beat Villanova 70-50 on Wednesday night in front of an announced crowd of 12,859.
SJU (13-7, 5-4 Big East Conference). Jordan Dingle poured in 12 points, going 6 of 13 (0 for 5 from downtown). Danis Jenkins scored nine points and was 3 of 9 shooting (1 for 5 from beyond the arc) and kept the Wildcats off-balance with dribble drive penetration in the lane.
“Our pressure was about as good as it could be,” SJU coach Rick Pitino said, saving his highest compliments for Joel Soriano. “He knew how important this game was for us. He was magnificent. I was happy with the way he played, happy with how the team played.”
St. John’s took advantage of Villanova inability to guard the perimeter and the Johnnies went deep and often. At the 9:45 mark St. Johns had a 21-11 lead and turning it up on the Wildcats with the full-court pressure after the first media time-out.
The Johnnies went into the half with a 32-22 lead. Joel Soriano and Glen Taylor Jr lead the way with six points.
SJU shot 47% (14-30) from the hardwood and 36% (4-11) from beyond the arc in the first half.
In the second half back to back layups by Dixon and Hakim Hart got the Wildcats within five points (40-35) with 12:46 on the clock. A jumper by Dixon made it 42-37 with 10:42 left but Soriano’s three-point play and Jordan Dingle’s layup upped the Johnnies lead to 52-39 with 7:43 remaining on the clock.
St. John’s close the game with three minutes left with back to back baskets by Dingle made it 61-42.
Eric Dixon led Villanova (11-8, 4-4) with 16 points and T.J. Bamba chipped in 12. Dixon and Bamba were a combined 10 of 17 from the hardwood but the Wildcats shot 37.5 percent overall, were awful 4 of 25 from beyond the arc and lost their third straight while getting held to a season low in points.
“We lost a couple of really tough games at the buzzer,” Pitino said, “but tonight we cast no shadow on who was going to win this game.”
The Johnnies out-rebounded the Wildcats 42-23 and was relentless on the glass all night long. The Johnnies set the tone early and they kept their foot on the gas throughout the contest.
UP NEXT:
Villanova will travel to Indiana to play Butler, Jan. 27th for a 3:00 P.M. start time on FS1.
St. John’s will travel and play Xavier, Jan. 31st for a 6:30 P.M. start time.
