St. John's University Athletics
Red Storm Faces Creighton Sunday in Omaha
2/26/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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QUEENS, N.Y. ââ'¬" St. John's heads to Omaha for its final regular-season road contest Sunday against Creighton (17-11, 8-7) at 2:30 p.m. eastern on FS1. Dick Stockton and Dickey Simpkins will call the action for the national telecast. St. John's radio broadcast with John Minko and Brandon Tierney can be heard on 570 AM WMCA and through TuneIn.
The Red Storm visits CenturyLink Center Omaha looking to end a two-game slide since picking up an 80-65 victory over DePaul on Feb. 17 at Carnesecca Arena. In the last two trips into challenging road venues, St. John's (8-21, 1-15) has held its ground before capacity crowds, battling both then-No. 6/5 Xavier and No. 1/1 Villanova deep into the second half.
In nearly two months since the clubs first met on Dec. 31 in Queens, St. John's has seen the progression of freshmen Kassoum Yakwe (Bamako, Mali) and Malik Ellison (Voorhees, N.J.) who have been mainstays in the starting lineup of late. Ellison is coming off a 12-point performance against DePaul on Thursday which was his best scoring effort since pouring in a career-high 17 points against Creighton on New Year's Eve. One game removed from back-to-back double-doubles, Yakwe has been the Red Storm's top option in the post on both ends of the court.
Yakwe and Ellison have taken advantage of extended minutes in February entering Sunday as two of the team's top three scorers in seven contests this month, averaging 11.1 points and 9.1 points, respectively. The rookie duo has also led the way in other statistical categories with Yakwe's team-best 7.3 rebounds and 3.1 blocks average, and Ellison's team-high 3.4 assists per game during this stretch.
In order to come away with a win on Sunday, the Red Storm will also have to lean on veterans Ron Mvouika (Paris, France) and Durand Johnson (Baltimore, Md.), who combined for 35 points and nine of the team's 10 3-pointers at DePaul. Mvouika poured in a season-high 20 points against the Blue Demons and has averaged 7.0 rebounds in the past two games. Johnson's 15 point performance Thursday was his team-leading 20th double-digit scoring effort this season.
After dropping the last two contests, Creighton is also hungry for a win as it jockeys for seeding in the BIG EAST Tournament. The Bluejays most recently suffered a 66-61 loss to Marquette Wednesday in Omaha going just 3-for-21 from distance. Maurice Watson Jr. had a team-high 14 points and five assists as Creighton moved to 4-4 at home in conference play.
About the Series with Creighton
- St. John's meets Creighton for the 13th time in a series that dates back to 1961.
- The Red Storm owns a 7-5 overall record and 2-3 record in BIG EAST play with the Bluejays.
- The teams have split the regular-season series the past two years.
