St. John’s had the closest thing it gets to a gimme in Big East Conference play yesterday, and to the Red Storm’s credit, it took it, blowing out depleted DePaul 67-47 at Carnesecca Arena.
Justin Burrell, one of 11 St. John’s players to score, led the Red Storm with 11 points. St. John’s outrebounded DePaul 46-26.
The Blue Demons recently fired their coach, Jerry Wainwright. Interim coach Tracy Webster lost his best player, power forward Mac Koshwal, early in the week to a foot injury.
DePaul (7-10, 0-5 Big East), which lost its 24th straight regular season league game, is more like a DeSaster.
Despite the win, St. John’s is headed for a disaster of its own if it doesn’t become a better free-throw shooting team. The Red Storm (12-5, 2-3) made just 15-of-23 free throws (65.2 percent).
The Johnnies went into the game dead last in Big East games at 53.7 percent (29-of-54) and it’s just a matter of time before they go broke at the free throw line.
“Oh, I think they get it,” said St. John’s coach Norm Roberts. “We talk about it every day. And we just got to make ’em. We got to step up there and make ’em. And we will.
“We keep working on it. We work on it after practice, we work on it before practice, we work on it during practice, but we just got to get better at doing it; making big shots.”
After losing its first three league games, St. John’s begins its toughest stretch of the season: at Connecticut Wednesday followed by Villanova at home and a game at Pittsburgh.
Those are three physical teams, which means free-throw shooting should help determine the outcome. Villanova, going into yesterday’s 82-77 win over Georgetown, was the second-best team from the line in conference games (75.2 percent). Against the Hoyas, the Wildcats made 23-of-30.
Pittsburgh was third in the league at 74.4 percent and Connecticut was 10th at 67.3.
“I don’t think you can harp on it,” said Roberts. “In most cases we got the right guys going to the line. We just got to focus in and just know that free throws are going to be a big factor in Big East games.”
On Wednesday, St. John’s beat Cincinnati 52-50 when Dwight Hardy knocked down four free throws in the final 14 seconds. But although Hardy is one of the team’s best shooters, there’s no guarantee he’ll be on the line in a big situation.
Roberts has tried an assortment of free-throw drills. During a recent practice, he randomly selected three players to convert both ends of a one-and-one. Each time a player missed, the entire squad had to run an up-and-back. The drill last some 10 minutes.
“It’s just a matter of going to the line, having your routine and making your shot,” said Roberts.
Walk-on senior John Taubeneck got two minutes of playing time for St. John’s and went 0-for-4 from the field. Anthony Mason Jr., in just his third game back, passed up an open 3-pointer to feed Taubeneck.
“I’m going to beat him up,” said Mason. “Put it in the paper.”
OK.
Additional reporting by
the Associated Press
