Postgame Notes: St. John's 58, Tennessee Tech 46

12/15/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Dec. 15, 2012

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Team Notes

St. John's remains undefeated in the St. John's Chartwells Holiday Classic at 9-0. The Red Storm will play No. 14/17 UCLA in the Championship game at 2 p.m. UCLA is currently riding a four-game winning streak after defeating Saint Mary's, 76-62 on Saturday.
STJ is 3-0 when playing at Carnesecca Arena this year.
The Red Storm out-rebounded Tennessee Tech by 13, 41-28. The last time St. John's outrebounded an opponent by 13 was against Iona (Nov. 25).
Three St. John's players (Aliyyah Handford, Shenneika Smith, Amber Thompson) scored in double figures. It was the fourth time this season this occurred.
The Red Storm outscored Tennessee Tech, 34-24, in the paint and is now 2-0 when outscoring its opponent by 10 or more points inside. The Red Storm outscored Hofstra 38-26 in the paint in its Nov. 17 victory.
St. John's scored a season-high 22 second chance points and allowed a season-low four second chance points. The 18-point differential is also a season-high.
The Red Storm had a 17-12 assist-to-turnover ratio and forced 16 Tennessee Tech turnovers.
Five players (Handford, Nadirah McKenith, Briana Brown, Smith, and Thompson) had five or more rebounds for the second time this season. The last was when St. John's defeated Hofstra, 73-47, on Nov. 17.

Individual Notes

Sophomore forward Amber Thompson scored a season-high 12 points and blocked a career-high four shots. Her previous season-high in points was 11 at Boston (Dec. 1) and her previous career-high in blocks came last season at Pittsburgh (Jan. 31), when Thompson blocked three shots.
Thompson also grabbed seven rebounds and now has 23 boards over her last three games.
Freshman guard Aliyyah Handford was in the starting lineup for the second-consecutive game. Handford tallied four career-highs with 10 points, six rebounds and two steals in 33 minutes.
Senior guard Nadirah McKenith became the 19th player in St. John's women's basketball history to join the 1,000-career-point list. McKenith scored nine points and added five assists, five rebounds, one steal and one blocked to complete her stat line.
Senior guard Shenneika Smith scored 15 points to go along with eight rebounds and a career-high seven assists. Smith shot 3-for-5 from behind the arc to set a season-high in 3-pointers made. The 15-point performance was Smith's fifth double-digit scoring effort of the season and 77th of her career.
Junior guard Keylantra Langley made two 3-pointers to set a new career-high. Going into Saturday's game, Langley had made one three-pointer seven times, with the last coming at Hartford (Nov. 25, 2012).

On UCLA

It will be the first meeting between St. John's and UCLA.
With Saturday's win against Tennessee Tech, St. John's is 2-0 against first-time opponents in 2012-13. The last Pac-12 opponent St. John's played was then-No. 1 Stanford in the 2011 NCAA Tournament Second Round in Stanford, Calif. St. John's lost, 75-49 (March 21).
Overall, STJ is 4-4 against teams from the Pac-12. The last time St. John's played a Pac-12 team during the regular season was against Oregon in 2001. St. John's lost, 52-75 on Nov. 30.