St. John's plays nearly perfect basketball in rout of DePaul
St. John's Red Storm guard Chris Ledlum puts up a shot over DePaul Blue Demons guard Elijah Fisher during the first half of their Big East men’s basketball game at Wintrust Arena on Tuesday in Chicago. Credit: John Konstantaras
CHICAGO — St. John’s never left anything in doubt on Tuesday night.
The Red Storm are finally on a drive toward the NCAA Tournament and there is no room for slip-ups now. They needed to beat Big East basement dweller DePaul and do it handily to reap the metric rewards to improve the resume.
They went 2-for-2 by turning in their best offensive performance of the season in a 104-77 Big East pasting of the Blue Demons before a crowd laughably announced as 2,824 at Wintrust Arena. The point total eclipsed the previous season high of 91, set against Utah and Holy Cross, and equals the most St. John’s has scored in a Big East game, set against Providence on Feb. 15, 1999.
“There’s a lot of teams that can play right now and we’re one of them,” Rick Pitino said. “We’re getting a lot better. We’re working very hard. We’re very highly motivated to play good basketball.
“We’ve played good basketball all year, with the exception of a couple of games, but never this good. We’re still not where I want them defensively. But offensively we’re a well-oiled machine right now.”
The Red Storm shot a season-best 60.3% from the floor, including 12-for-23 on three-pointers. They had 26 assists and just six turnovers and over their past three games have 67 assists against 12 giveaways.
St. John’s (18-12, 10-9) has won four straight and could finish fifth in the conference and get the last quarterfinal bye in the Big East Tournament. It closes the regular season against 10th-place Georgetown on Saturday at the Garden. DePaul (3-27, 0-19) has lost 18 straight.
The Storm closed the first half on a 30-6 run for a 54-28 lead at intermission, their highest-scoring half of the season. St. John’s pushed the margin to 30 points after just 1:01 of the second half and to more than 40 when Simeon Wilcher drained three-pointers on consecutive possessions to make it 86-45 with 11:12 to play.
The outcome academic, a contingent of DePaul fans chanted for Pitino to put Sean Conway into the game. He inserted the senior swingman then said to the Blue Demons fans, “Do you want me to put anyone else in?”
Chris Ledlum and Jordan Dingle led St. John’s with 19 points apiece. Ledlum added eight rebounds and three steals and Dingle chipped in six assists. Wilcher scored 12 points and Nahiem Alleyne, RJ Luis Jr. and Daniss Jenkins each added 11 points. Jenkins was on the bench with two fouls when the Storm pulled away before halftime.
Chico Carter Jr. scored 23 for the Blue Demons.
“We’re getting a lot better and you want to get better in March,” Pitino said. “I think Dingle and Ledlum are the key for us getting better ... They’re playing terrific basketball right now. It’s a big lift when we don’t have to just count on [Jenkins]. DJ went out of the game and we went on an incredible run.”
He called Dingle and Ledlum “the most improved two players on our basketball team.”
“We’re all gelling together at the right time,” Ledlum said. “We dropped a bunch of games we could have won early on because [we’re 12] new guys together for the first time. But it’s great to see how far we’ve come. It’s fun and exciting ... We’re playing great with each other and what better time than March?”
Pitino was asked if a win Saturday could punch St. John’s Big Dance ticket and replied: “I can’t say whether we’re in or not. All I can say is we’re playing great basketball and that’s what I want come March.”
But he left no doubt what he is looking for this weekend at the Garden.
“We’ll find out a little bit about our fans on Saturday because we need a great crowd,” Pitino said. “We’ve got to win that game. So we’ll see how the Johnnies [fans] turn out.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.