News Update: St john’s has a fantastic starting players and a strong bench as well,some are even claiming that Chris Obekpa, Shamorie Ponds, and Mar…

On Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden in New York, St. John’s defeated visiting Villanova 70–50 thanks to Joel Soriano’s 21 points and nine rebounds. With their victory, the Red Storm (13-7, 5-4 Big East) ended a three-game losing run and defeated Villanova in the season series for the first time since 1992–1993, the year that legendary coach Lou Carnesecca retired. For the last ten minutes, St. John’s outscored Villanova 25-11, maintaining a lead for the most of the game.

 

In St. John’s two victories over Villanova this season, Soriano scored 15 points in the second half, made 8 of 9 shots in 30 minutes total, and finished with 41 points. The big led St. John’s to a 42-23 rebounding advantage, with the Red Storm grabbing 15 offensive rebounds.

St. John’s hit 46.7 percent with Jordan Dingle adding 12 points after sitting out the defeats to Marquette and Seton Hall due to illness. The only Red Storm players to score in double figures were Soriano and Dingle. Under first-year coach Rick Pitino, the Red Storm won their most decisive conference game. With 16 points, Eric Dixon led Villanova (11-8, 4-4) while T.J. Bamba chipped in with 12. Together, Dixon and Bamba hit 10 of 17 for the Wildcats, but they only shot 37.5 percent overall, a dismal 4 of 25 from 3-point range, and lost three straight games while scoring less points than they had all season.

Drissa Traore’s 3-pointer with 10:01 left gave St. John’s a 21-11 lead after eight straight points in 62 seconds. Soriano’s jumper with 6:42 left completed a 15-2 run for the team. After Villanova scored seven points in a row, Simeon Wilcher’s back-to-back baskets enabled St. John’s take a 32-22 advantage into halftime.

At 12:46, Dixon and Hakim Hart made consecutive layups to pull Villanova within 40-35. With 10:42 remaining, Dixon added another basket to make it 42-37, but Soriano’s three-point shot and Jordan Dingle’s layup gave St. John’s the lead 52-39 with 7:43 left. With almost three minutes remaining, Dingle made consecutive baskets to put the Red Storm up, 61-42.