Red Storm Rides Five-Game Win Streak Into Carnesecca

The Red Storm look to defend a five-game win streak on Sunday against Georgetown.

Red Storm Rides Five-Game Win Streak Into Carnesecca

1/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Jan. 24, 2014

QUEENS, N.Y. - The St. John's women's basketball team (13-5, 6-1 BIG EAST) is riding a five-game win streak into Carenesecca Arena on Sunday, Jan. 26, for a 6 p.m. tip against Georgetown (7-12, 1-6 BIG EAST). The BIG EAST showdown will be nationally televised on FOX Sports 1 with Chris Shearn and Leslie Hill on the call.

Last Time Out

A streaking St. John's women's basketball team made it five wins in a row and eight victories in its last nine games with a 59-52 road triumph over Villanova in BIG EAST action from The Pavilion on Jan. 22.
Junior forward Amber Thompson scored a team-high 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting - her fifth time in double figures in the last seven games - to go with six rebounds and a pair of blocks. Sophomore Aliyyah Handford added 11 points and was 7-of-8 from the charity stripe with five rebounds and three assists while senior Eugeneia McPherson stuffed the stat sheet to the tune of nine points, three rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block.

St. John's & Georgetown - The Series

Georgetown is 24-27 against St. John's all-time but the Red Storm have won three out of the last four contests between the two programs.
Last year's matchup was a 76-72 St. John's victory in overtime at Carnesecca Arena. The Red Storm was led by Shenneika Smith's 26 points and Nadirah McKenith's 16 points and 12 assists.

Scouting The Hoyas

The Hoyas, who have lost three-straight coming into Sunday night's matchup, are 7-12 and 1-6 in the BIG EAST and they currently sit at 10th in the BIG EAST standings.
Georgetown is among the league leaders in field goal percentage and field goal percentage defense in the conference. GU shoots at a 42.0 percent clip from the field, good enough for third in the BIG EAST, while allowing their opponents to shoot only 37.0 percent which ranks second in the conference.
Senior forward Andrea White leads the team in scoring with 16.0 points per game, which ranks seventh in the conference, while also averaging 19.3 ppg in BIG EAST play. Freshman center Natalie Butler is averaging a double-double and sits in the top-10 of the BIG EAST for scoring and rebounding with 14.6 points per contest and 13.2 boards per game.
Head coach Jim Lewis is in the midst of his first at Georgetown. Previously, Lewis had been on the staff of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks, the head coach at George Mason and the first head coach of the Washington Mystics.

BIG EAST Leaders

St. John's sits atop the BIG EAST list for 3-point field goal percentage defense after limiting opponents to just a 26.0 mark from behind the arc. The Red Storm is also ranked second in field goal percentage with a .440 mark after going 440-of-1000 from the floor, second in 3-point field goal percentage (.332), third in rebounding defense (36.0) and third in scoring defense (63.0).
Individually, Aliyyah Handford is fourth in the league in scoring with 17.0 points per game and is fifth in steals with 2.1 per game. After hitting 44-of-53 attempts at the charity stripe, senior captain Briana Brown is third in the BIG EAST with an 83.0 percentage in free throw percentage. Brown is also third in 3-point field goal percentage with a 40.0 mark from behind the arc.

Red Storm 3-Point Defense Ranks Top-15 In The Country

The Red Storm defense has been solid in the early 2013-14 season, holding opponents to just 63.0 points per game. St. John's foes are hitting just 26.0 percent of their attempts from behind the arc ranking the Red Storm 12th in the country in 3-point field goal defense.
In 2013-14, the Red Storm has limited two opponents to under a 10.0 percent mark from the 3-point arc with the most recent coming at Marquette where the Golden Eagles went 1-of-14 for a 7.1 percentage, the best 3-point defensive effort since Feb. 17, 2013 when the Red Storm held Cincinnati to a .000 (0-for-6) mark at Carnesecca. In the 2013-14 conference opener against Seton Hall, St. John's limited the Pirates to a 9.1 (1-for-11) percentage from behind the arc.

SJU Record Watch

Fifth-year senior Eugeneia McPherson has cemented her name in the St. John's record book after just 11 games back on the hardwood as she nears the conclusion of her Red Storm career. McPherson currently sits in ninth place for 3-point field goals made in a career with 90 and is ninth in career made free throws with 251.

Sharp-Shooting Seniors

St. John's trio of seniors lead the Red Storm from behind the arc combining for 43 of the squad's 62 3-pointers. Briana Brown has a team-high 20 3-pointers, while Keylantra Langley has knocked in 13 and Eugeneia McPherson has made 10.

Red Storm Against BIG EAST Foes

The Red Storm sits at 6-1 in BIG EAST action and has four student-athletes averaging double-digits when playing conference foes as St. John's owns a +6.4 scoring margin. Danaejah Grant leads the way in league play with 12.7 points per game, Aliyyah Handford chips in 12.0 ppg, Briana Brown averages 10.1 and Amber Thompson is knocking in 10.0 points against conference foes.

McPherson Nears 1,000 Points

Senior guard Eugeneia McPherson has tallied 969 career points, 31 short of becoming St. John's 20th 1,000-point scorer. Were she to reach the mark, McPherson would become the third player to reach the 1,000-point plateau under head coach Joe Tartamella, joining graduated guards and the program's first ever WNBA draft picks Shenneika Smith and Nadirah McKenith, who achieved the feat in 2012-13.
McPherson returns to the court after suffering a season-ending injury just five games into the 2012-13 season, which she opened with a 14-point, five-assist game against Texas in the WBI Tip Off Invitational. McPherson has averaged 8.5 points per game for her St. John's career and was the only player to start and play in all 34 games in the 2011-12 campaign, her last full season, finishing as the Red Storm's third-highest scorer with an average of 11.8 points per game and finishing with a team-high 32 3-pointers.

Up Next

St. John's remains in Queens and plays host to conference foe Xavier on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 7 p.m. The game will be carried live on ESPN3. It will mark the second time this season that the Red Storm and Musketeers are meeting after Xavier handed SJU it's only conference loss of the season in a five-point loss on Jan. 5.