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PROVIDENCE — The first half wasn’t St. John’s best start to an NCAA Tournament. But the Red Storm easily avoided the wrong side of history.
Rick Pitino’s group is advancing to the Round of 32 after a quintessential second-half performance. No. 2 St. John’s (31-4) stormed past No. 15 Omaha, 83-53, in front of 11,434 on Thursday night at the Amica Mutual Pavilion. RJ Luis Jr. paced St. John’s with 22 points. Simeon Wilcher added 13 points and Zuby Ejiofor and Kadary Richmond both chipped in 10.
St. John’s will play John Calipari and No. 10 Arkansas on Saturday after the Razorbacks dispatched Kansas, 79-72, in the first round. Game time is TBD.
"We didn't play particularly well," Pitino said. "They're a tough team to guard. Because we played great defense and kept giving up, we got them to take a lot of bad shots, and we didn't chase the loose ball rebounds."
"The whole team, we came out very tight," Luis said. "This is their first time playing, so I think it was a little bit of nerves, but we cleaned it up in the second half. We got back to our identity, which is defense, and we brought up the pressure and just got to go back and learn from our mistakes this game and prepare for Saturday."
St. John’s didn’t take its first lead until the 6:22 mark of the first half as Omaha owned the paint over the first 15 minutes. It was the type of rocky start that breed upsets in March, but St. John’s turned on the 3-point flamethrower before the intermission.
Three straight triples gave St. John’s a 28-22 advantage with 3:44 left in the first half. The heightened defensive intensity, that led to a 14-2 run over 4:41 in the first half, spanned the intermission. St. John’s had 15 points off turnovers just six minutes into the second half and cruised to a 56-36 lead on Luis' triple from the left wing.
"I'm not thrilled with the rebounding," Pitino said. "I'm thrilled with everything else. We got them to take a lot of bad shots, defense was excellent. We changed our defense in the second half, which helped us a lot but wasn't happy about giving [Isaac Ondekane], second-chance shots."
Luis wasn’t going home early, up 22 late in regulation, the 6-foot-7 junior was still finishing at the rim against Omaha. The forward ended the night 8-of-14 shooting and canned five 3-pointers and received MVP chants when he checked out for the final time with 3:56 left.
"All of these games are important, but like I said, learn from our mistakes and get prepared for Saturday," Luis said.
Omaha (22-13), in its first NCAA Tournament appearance, was led by JJ White’s 15 points and Marquel Sutton’s 11. The Mavericks, winners of the Summit League Conference Tournament, hung tough for a stretch in the first half. But their Big East opponent was too physical and as the Red Storm’s defense started to dictate the pace, Omaha was run out of Providence.
St. John’s shot 45.3% (29-64) from the field and Omaha finished just 25.7%.
"I think their physicality just wore us down," Omaha coach, Chris Crutchfield said. "We didn't make any shots tonight, but great effort by our guys. I'm proud of our guys for how they handled everything to get to this point, to get to the NCAA tournament."
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: St. John's defeats Omaha in March Madness with second-half surge
Continue reading...
Rick Pitino’s group is advancing to the Round of 32 after a quintessential second-half performance. No. 2 St. John’s (31-4) stormed past No. 15 Omaha, 83-53, in front of 11,434 on Thursday night at the Amica Mutual Pavilion. RJ Luis Jr. paced St. John’s with 22 points. Simeon Wilcher added 13 points and Zuby Ejiofor and Kadary Richmond both chipped in 10.
St. John’s will play John Calipari and No. 10 Arkansas on Saturday after the Razorbacks dispatched Kansas, 79-72, in the first round. Game time is TBD.
"We didn't play particularly well," Pitino said. "They're a tough team to guard. Because we played great defense and kept giving up, we got them to take a lot of bad shots, and we didn't chase the loose ball rebounds."
"The whole team, we came out very tight," Luis said. "This is their first time playing, so I think it was a little bit of nerves, but we cleaned it up in the second half. We got back to our identity, which is defense, and we brought up the pressure and just got to go back and learn from our mistakes this game and prepare for Saturday."
St. John’s didn’t take its first lead until the 6:22 mark of the first half as Omaha owned the paint over the first 15 minutes. It was the type of rocky start that breed upsets in March, but St. John’s turned on the 3-point flamethrower before the intermission.
Three straight triples gave St. John’s a 28-22 advantage with 3:44 left in the first half. The heightened defensive intensity, that led to a 14-2 run over 4:41 in the first half, spanned the intermission. St. John’s had 15 points off turnovers just six minutes into the second half and cruised to a 56-36 lead on Luis' triple from the left wing.
"I'm not thrilled with the rebounding," Pitino said. "I'm thrilled with everything else. We got them to take a lot of bad shots, defense was excellent. We changed our defense in the second half, which helped us a lot but wasn't happy about giving [Isaac Ondekane], second-chance shots."
Luis wasn’t going home early, up 22 late in regulation, the 6-foot-7 junior was still finishing at the rim against Omaha. The forward ended the night 8-of-14 shooting and canned five 3-pointers and received MVP chants when he checked out for the final time with 3:56 left.
"All of these games are important, but like I said, learn from our mistakes and get prepared for Saturday," Luis said.
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Omaha (22-13), in its first NCAA Tournament appearance, was led by JJ White’s 15 points and Marquel Sutton’s 11. The Mavericks, winners of the Summit League Conference Tournament, hung tough for a stretch in the first half. But their Big East opponent was too physical and as the Red Storm’s defense started to dictate the pace, Omaha was run out of Providence.
St. John’s shot 45.3% (29-64) from the field and Omaha finished just 25.7%.
"I think their physicality just wore us down," Omaha coach, Chris Crutchfield said. "We didn't make any shots tonight, but great effort by our guys. I'm proud of our guys for how they handled everything to get to this point, to get to the NCAA tournament."
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: St. John's defeats Omaha in March Madness with second-half surge
Continue reading...
