In their 2017-18 season opener, St. John’s picked up a 77-61 win over New Orleans as Marcus LoVett led the way with 23 points.
- New Orleans 61 (0-1)
- St. John’s 77 (1-0)
- Final, Box Score
- Carnesecca Arena, Queens, NY
Tonight, the St. John’s men’s basketball team began the 2017-18 regular season at home against the New Orleans Privateers. For the Red Storm, it was mainly about the three-point shot as they hit 12 of their 30 3’s in a 77-61 win where the outcome was rarely ever in doubt.
The stars of the game for St. John’s were their backcourt of Shamorie Ponds and Marcus LoVett. Ponds had 12 points, a team-high seven rebounds, six assists, and showed off his ability to get to the rim.
LoVett was able to lead the way from the perimeter with five 3-pointers on ten attempts as part of a game-high 23 points. It was the tenth time in his Red Storm career that he has had at least 20 points.
In addition to his strong offense, LoVett had a team-high four steals. St. John’s was able to use their defense to force 21 turnovers, which led to 36 points in the win.
For Marvin Clark Jr. and Justin Simon, tonight was a chance to make a good first impression and they did just that. Clark Jr. had 15 points and made five of his six field goal attempts. As for Simon, he did a little bit of everything with nine points, four rebounds, two steals, two assists, and this exciting dunk:
While St. John’s led for all but 21 seconds in this game, New Orleans kept it close in the first half. The Privateers cut the Red Storm lead to 30-28 with 3:07 to go, but St. John’s went on a 7-0 run to take a nine-point lead into the locker room. From there, they were able to pull away in the second half as they led by double digits the rest of the way.
If there was one concern from this game for St. John’s, it was how New Orleans dominated the glass. They outrebounded St. John’s 42-27 and 15 of those boards were of the offensive variety (St. John’s had seven). This included seven rebounds from senior forward Travin Thibodeaux, who had a team-high 18 points for the Privateers.
In this game, we saw a St. John’s offense that is tough to beat when the shots are falling. With four players in double figures, the team shot about 45 percent from the floor and was even 15-of-19 from the foul line. The free throw percentage was a big improvement from their second exhibition game against Rutgers.
Tonight wasn’t too big of a test for the Red Storm, but they will need to fix the rebounding problems in the frontcourt by the time conference play begins in late December.
Next Game: The St. John’s Red Storm will be back in action on Tuesday night when they take on Central Connecticut State at Carnesecca Arena. You can watch the game on FS2 at 6:30 p.m ET.