St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
22-10
Army
23-8
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army | 22 | 34 | 56 |
| St. John's | 25 | 39 | 64 |
Red Storm Outlasts Army, 64-56
3/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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| Box Score (PDF)
QUEENS, N.Y. - Playing in a postseason tournament for the eighth-consecutive year, the St. John's Red Storm used monster efforts from Aaliyah Lewis and Danaejah Grant to down Army, 64-56, in the First Round of the WNIT at Carnesecca Arena on Thursday night.
The Red Storm will now host Fordham in the Second Round of the WNIT on Sunday at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN3.
"I'm proud of the fact that we were able to push through and get a postseason win," said Head Coach Joe Tartamella. "I told our players that when you get into the postseason - whether its conference tournament play, NCAA or WNIT - these are the games in which you make your name. I'm proud of the way we were able to gut through this game where you can easily just let it go and maybe have a little bit of a letdown from not getting into the NCAA Tournament. Now we live on to go to our next game."
As a program, the Red Storm has now won at least one game in all four of their WNIT appearances and nine of their last 10 postseason appearances overall since 2004-05.
Lewis tallied a career-high 20 points, highlighted by a 12-for-12 output from the charity stripe, to lead the Red Storm over the Black Knights. The Staten Island, N.Y., native also converted on four of her seven attempts from the floor and added a team-high four helpers.
Grant recorded her team-high fourth double-double of the year. The junior guard scored 18 points and grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds, nine of which came on the defensive glass.
Amber Thompson, the all-time leading rebounder in program history, also had a big night on the boards for the Red Storm, corralling 16 caroms. One of the top three shot blockers in program history, the Newark, N.J., native also swatted away four Army shot attempts.
As a team, the Red Storm outrebounded the Black Knights by a margin of 44-32. Jade Walker rounded out a trio of Red Storm scorers in double figures, finishing the game with 11 points and four boards in 36 minutes of action.
Aliyyah Handford put up eight points and five rebounds for St. John's in the winning effort.
St. John's was dominant defensively to start, forcing misses on Army's first eight shots and jumping out to a 7-0 lead with four and a half minutes gone in the game.
Trailing by seven, 11-4, a few minutes later, the Black Knights outscored St. John's 16-6 over the next 6:28, as a Kelsey Minato three-ball gave Army its first lead of the game, 20-17, with 5:48 to go until the break.
The Red Storm climbed back on top near the two-minute mark of the half, as four-straight from Lewis made it 23-22 in favor of St. John's. Thompson added another bucket before the break, as a 6-0 run gave the Red Storm a 25-22 advantage at the intermission.
St. John's bumped its lead to five in the opening minute of the second half on a Thompson jumper, but Army soon clawed its way back into the contest. Down 31-26, the Black Knights scored five unanswered to tie the score at 31 with 14 minutes to go.
The two teams battled over the next several minutes, going bucket for bucket for before an Olivia Schretzman layup knotted the game at 35 with 12:09 left on the clock.
From there, Grant scored five points to lead a 7-0 run for the Red Storm, giving the Johnnies a seven-point lead, 42-35, near the midway mark of the period. By the time the 12-2 run was over, the Red Storm led by double digits, 47-37, with 8:49 to go.
Five points from Minato quickly cut the Red Storm advantage back to five, but the Red Storm wasted no time on their end, getting the lead back to double digits, 54-44, with 4:50 left on the clock.
Army made one last push over the game's waning minutes, but the Red Storm, led by Lewis, were lights-out from the free throw line to clinch the victory.
