St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Welcomes Yale for Midweek Matchup
12/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
QUEENS, N.Y. - The winners of six in a row, the Red Storm will welcome the Yale Bulldogs to Carnesecca Arena for a midweek matchup this Wednesday at 7 p.m. The game will be held as part of a doubleheader with the St. John's men's basketball team, who tips off against Niagara at 5 p.m. The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN3 with Mike Watts and Kim Adams on the call.
QUICK HITS
The Red Storm enters the contest following a convincing 86-71 win on the road at Kansas on Sunday afternoon, in which St. John's registered a season-best offensive output thanks to a career-high 33 points from Aliyyah Handford and 26 from Danaejah Grant. The Red Storm shot a blistering 56.9 percent from the floor and sank 90 percent of its tries from the charity stripe.
For her efforts against Sacred Heart and Kansas, Handford was named the BIG EAST Player of the Week and the MBWA All-Met Player of the Week. In addition to her 33-point, five-rebound, five-assist outburst against the Jayhawks, Handford also tallied 24 points, five rebounds and four assists against the Pioneers. The senior guard from Newark, who was also the BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year, is averaging 19.9 points per game on the year, second in the conference only to her teammate Grant.
Grant and Handford are one of just three pairs of teammates in the NCAA to rank one-two in their conference in scoring, joining Shereesa Richards and Imani Tate of Albany (America East) and Brittany Crain and Rejane Verin of UC Riverside (Big West). At a combined 40 points per game, the two Garden State natives are the third-highest scoring duo of teammates in the nation behind Richards and Tate of Albany and Rachel Banham and Carlie Wagner of Minnesota.
When the Red Storm beat the Jayhawks on Sunday to make it six wins in a row, the team also made it eight-straight seasons with a winning streak of at least six games. The program's best run during that stretch came during the 2010-11 season, when the Red Storm rattled off 11-straight wins in non-conference play. Joe Tartamella's squads have also recorded winning streaks of 10 games in each of the past two seasons as the Red Storm won 10-consecutive BIG EAST games in 2013-14 and came away victorious in the first 10 contests of 2014-15. The program record for consecutive victories is 16, achieved in 1975-76 and 1983-84.
Having already reached the 1,000-point mark for her career overall, Grant is just seven points away for 1,000 at St. John's. Grant would become the 22nd player in program history to reach the milestone. The Piscataway, N.J., product scored 94 points in seven games at Clemson as a freshman before transferring.
SCOUTING YALE
The Bulldogs enter Wednesday's contest with a record of 6-4 on the year following a Sunday win over Wagner.
None of Yale's losses have been more than 10 points and have come against quality opponents in Dayton, UNC, West Virginia and Army.
The Bulldogs are led on offense by senior guard Nyasha Sarju, who is currently averaging 16.7 points per game and shooting at a 52 percent clip.
Senior guard Whitney Wyckoff is also in double figures, averaging 10.1 per game.
Yale has been superb on the boards this year, sporting a 42.9 rebound per game average and a +3.9 rebounding margin.
ST. JOHN'S VS. YALE- THE SERIES
The Red Storm and the Bulldogs have met on one occasion in the history of the two programs, a 61-50 win for the Johnnies in last year's season opener.
In that contest, Grant poured in a career-high 30 points leading the Red Storm to its first of 10-straight wins to kick off the season.
