Shorthanded St. John’s falls to DePaul, 79-71

After a collapse to Villanova on Tuesday, the Red Storm returned home to face the Blue Demons of DePaul. The Villanova game and this DePaul game could not have been more different, as the VIllanova game featured 67 combined 3-point attempts, while the DePaul game had only 31. Additionally, the DePaul game maintained an all around herky-jerky feel.

However, both games resulted with the same unfortunate outcome with St. John’s falling to DePaul, 79-71.

Next, the Red Storm stay home to take on the Creighton Blue Jays on Wednesday.

To start off the game, Bryan Trimble, Jr. replaced the injured Shamorie Ponds, who was out with a lower back strain, in the starting lineup.

In the first half, St. John’s struggled to find their rhythm offensively. The Red Storm shot 3 of 12 from beyond the arc, significantly below the 40% they have shot on the season.

Despite the offensive struggles of St. John’s as a whole, LJ Figueroa had a quality half scoring 12 points (4/5 FG, 2/2 3PT), leading all scorers in the half, while grabbing a pair of rebounds.

In order to keep the game close, the Red Storm kept DePaul from having a quality shooting half. In large part, St. John’s was able to keep DePaul from taking good looks, holding the Blue Demons to only 7 attempts from beyond the arc.

Unfortunately for St. John’s, DePaul had an effective half on the offensive boards, grabbing 9 in the first half to St. John’s 3.

Despite St. John’s shooting woes and rebounding issues, the Red Storm went into the half down only 31 to 30.

In the second half, the Red Storm altered their offensive approach by all but abandoning 3-point attempts all together while continuing to deny quality looks from deep to the Blue Demons.

St. John’s only attempted 7 3-point attempts, most of which came late, to DePaul’s 5 attempts in the second half.

However, with both teams making an effort to get to the basket, DePaul found itself at the line 23 times in the second compared to St. John’s 3.

DePaul adjusted to the new Red Storm approach and went into a 2-3 zone for a long stretch, leading to DePaul taking a 9 point lead with less than five minutes remaining.

After DePaul picked up this lead and Coach Mullin picked up a technical, the rest of the game was a mere formality with DePaul defeating St. John’s 79-71.

St. John’s Red Storm

LJ Figueroa: 23 points (9/14 FG, 3/5 3PT), 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 turnover

Justin Simon: 20 points (10/16 FG, 0/1 3PT), 4 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 turnovers

Marvin Clark II: 14 points (6/16 FG, 1/7 3PT), 12 rebounds, 2 turnovers

DePaul Blue Demons

Femi Olujobi: 27 points (11/19 FG, 0/1 3PT), 8 rebounds, 3 turnovers

Paul Reed: 18 points (7/11 FG), 10 rebounds, 2 assists

Max Strus: 14 points (4/13 FG, 2/8 3PT), 12 rebounds