St. John’s dominates Butler inside, improves to 5-2 in Big East

Ber’Nyah Mayo’s 12 points led a balanced St. John’s offense over Butler on Wednesday night in Queens. (Photo by Sara Kiernan/The Torch)

By Kyler Fox (@kylerrfox)

NEW YORK —  Just four days ago, St. John’s found itself on the losing end of a 92-49 thrashing at the hands of 9th-ranked UConn. The disaster at UBS Arena handed the Red Storm its most decisive loss of the season, dropping it to third place in the Big East.  

However, head coach Joe Tartamella and company did not dwell on the lopsided loss. Instead, they responded with a 60-42 dismantling of Butler at Carnesecca Arena.

Despite the final score indicating a blowout, the first half was tightly contested and low-scoring. After initially grabbing a 9-2 lead, the Red Storm found itself in a close battle, allowing the Bulldogs to end the quarter on a 13-5 run, claiming the lead and early momentum. 

The second quarter followed a similar back-and-forth trend, with both squads shooting below 40 percent from the field. St. John’s star senior guard Unique Drake had an off night, posting just 7 points on 3-for-10 shooting, and Butler took advantage. Senior guard Caroline Strande and junior forward Sydney Jaynes combined for 17 first half points, but despite their efforts, the Bulldogs trailed 30-26 at halftime.

Both squads’ shooting woes would carry over into the second half, as neither would score until Jailah Donald connected on a three-pointer nearly three minutes into the third quarter. This extended St. John’s lead to seven, allowing the Red Storm to pull away. Butler struggled to find rhythm on both ends of the court, managing only five points in the third quarter. The Bulldogs had no answer for senior forward Jillian Archer and the Red Storm’s frontcourt, as St. John’s dominated the interior to the tune of 38 points in the paint, 12 coming by way of second chance. 

With Strande and Jaynes unable to continue their first-half success, Butler would only muster 16 second-half points, resulting in the blowout. In addition to the excellent defense, the cherry on top of the Red Storm’s performance would come by way of three starters scoring in double figures, proving the hosts can still win convincingly when Drake isn't lighting up the stat-sheet. 

In the postgame press conference, Archer credited ball movement to St. John’s balanced offensive attack. 

“I definitely think ball movement played a big part in it,” she stated. “We really try to talk about sharing the ball, and it was just great to go out and execute it.”

Similarly, Tartamella expressed his satisfaction with getting everyone involved.

“We were able to create drives that either created a shot or an extra pass,” he added. “It’s not always easy to do, but tonight we were pretty good in that area.” 

Now having rid its collective mouths of the lingering bad taste from the debacle against UConn, the Red Storm will travel to New Jersey for a matchup with Seton Hall, aiming to move to 6-2 in conference play during the 6:30 p.m. contest Monday night in South Orange.