Women's basketball earns first Euro victory with win over Sea Sirens

After a less than ideal start to their European game schedule, the St. John's women's basketball team turned things around on Wednesday, recording the program's first-ever over-seas victory with an 83-51 victory over the Adriatic Sea Sirens.

The win was a far cry from the Red Storm's first international game earlier this week as the team looked more comfortable competing under FIBA International Rules on Wednesday and finding a rhythm much earlier in the matchup.

Amber Thompson, Aliyyah Handford, Imani Lewis, Danaejah Grant and Jade Walker earned spots in the starting lineup with Walker leading the way with a team-high 15 points. Handford and Grant followed up with 14 points each while Thompson wrapped up her afternoon with double digits as well.

The Storm played a much quicker game in their second international matchup, working a strong defensive attack to force steals and use the transition game to get out scoring quickly. In fact, that's exactly how St. John's jumpstarted the game, going on a 12-7 run to open the first quarter before forcing the Sea Sirens into an early timeout.

By the end of the first half, the Red Storm had racked up 45 points, more than they had posted in their game one loss to the Dutch National Team, while holding the Sea Sirens to just 29.

St. John's takes back to the road, heading to Florence and Madrid over the next two days and won't return to the court until Saturday when the Storm will square off against Distrito Olimpico Madrid.

"I'm looking forward to getting better as a team and continue building," said freshman Tamesha Alexander of the next leg of the Storm's European tour. "I think we have a very special team this year. The future is just sky high for us and there are no limits for us as a team."