St. John’s could be without their second-leading scorer Mustapha Heron after the guard suffered an ankle sprain in Tuesday’s game.
The St. John’s Red Storm are on a five-game winning streak with three games against ranked opponents coming up. However, they’ll likely be without one of their stars as Mustapha Heron is dealing with a sprained ankle.
According to Adam Zagoria of the New York Times, a team source expects Heron’s ankle sprain to sideline the guard for two weeks. Heron suffered the injury in the waning minutes of the Red Storm’s 82-71 victory over Brown University.
Heron is averaging 15.0 points per game on 40.5/40.8/78.2 shooting splits. The versatile guard is also chipping in with 2.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. He and LJ Figueroa have made a formidable duo for a St. John’s team that is off to a 9-2 start under new head coach Mike Anderson.
The Johnnies have non-conference games against unranked Albany and 15th-ranked Arizona before opening up conference play on New Year’s Eve against No. 18 Butler. Following their conference-opener against the Bulldogs, the Red Storm will travel to Cincinnati to take on No. 22 Xavier.
As a result of the holidays, Heron will have ample time to recover from this injury and so long as he doesn’t suffer any setbacks, he could be back before conference play begins.
While St. John’s isn’t expected to make the NCAA Tournament this season, a strong showing in the Big East could alter the perception around the Red Storm. If they’re going to do that, they’ll need to have Heron at 100%.
