St. John's Basketball

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On November 25, 2023, the St. John’s Red Storm Men’s Basketball team took on the Holy Cross Crusaders at Carnesecca Arena in Jamaica, NY. The Red Storm came into the game with a 3-2 record and the Crusaders, with a 2-4 record. The Red Storm entered the game following a 91-82 win against Utah.

As the Crusaders tried to improve their record, their team was matched up against the 6 ’11 Center, Joel Soriano. He leads his team in scoring and rebounding with 16.2 Points Per Game (PPG) and 11.2 Rebounds Per Game (RPG).

The final outcome was a St. John’s Red Storm victory 91-45, with the top scorers being Joel Soriano with 16 and RJ Luis with 14 points. The team shot 50.6% as a whole and didn’t let the Crusaders retaliate. Phoenix Suns’ Kevin Durant sat on the sidelines during the blowout win. In the post-game press conference, Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino called it an “honor”.

The Red Storm weren’t forcing any shots and they were taking the ball straight to the hoop. Although Coach Pitino seemed a bit frustrated with Zuby Ejiofor for not moving the ball in the first period, he was happy with the team’s overall performance. They only turned the ball over eight times compared to the Crusaders’ 20.

The Crusaders had an eight-point lead at the 13:09 mark of the first period and didn’t have a lead afterward. In the second period, the Red Storm led by as many as 46 points which couldn’t have been possible without the team’s effort on the offensive glass with 21, and 48 total.

The Red Storm had 27 points-off-turnovers compared to the Crusaders’ five. The lack of ball movement and carelessness with the ball from the Crusaders led to 20 turnovers and 26 Red Storm fastbreak points. Crusaders’ leading scorer, Joe Octave (16.3 PPG) took a lot of head-scratching shots with tight defense. Octave only scored seven points on 2-of-7 shooting and it led to a blowout loss.

The Holy Cross Crusaders could win if they put the pieces together and moved the ball around to create an open shot. Until they find and fix their errors, the Red Storm will come out on top. With another victory in the books and a 4-2 record, the Red Storm look to battle the West Virginia Mountaineers in West Virginia on December 1, at 7 pm E.T.