St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Seton Hall
St. John's Downs Seton Hall, 72-64
2/7/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - In a heated battle between two rivals at the top of the BIG EAST standings, Aaliyah Lewis scored a career-high 22 points and Danaejah Grant added 20, leading St. John's to a 72-64 win over Seton Hall at Walsh Gymnasium.
With the win, St. John's (17-6, 8-4 BIG EAST) remains tied with Xavier for second place in the conference. Seton Hall, who entered the game ranked 20th in the RPI, falls to 17-6, 7-5 in league play, with the loss.
"We did a great job of preparing for this game, said Head Coach Joe Tartamella. "I thought we took them out of their rhythm early and then our bench played great, which was huge. At the end we didn't rebound as well, but I thought we did a great job throughout the game of limiting their second-chance opportunities. I was really happy with our effort."
Both Lewis and Grant tallied their point totals in very efficient fashion, as Lewis made seven of her 11 attempts from the floor and Grant sank nine of her 10 tries. Grant made her first nine shots of the game, narrowly missing the opportunity to become just the sixth player in conference history to shoot 100 percent from the floor with a minimum of six made field goals. Lewis had a great performance at the free throw line, converting on seven of her eight attempts.
Shooting 51.9 percent for the game, the Red Storm is now 7-0 in contests when making more than half of its tries. St. John's shot a blistering 64 percent in the second half.
Aliyyah Handford also finished in double figures for the Red Storm, scoring 12 points in addition to dishing out a game-high four assists.
St. John's struggled to find the bottom of the bucket in the early going, missing its first four field goal attempts and falling behind 8-0 with three minutes gone in the first quarter. The Red Storm wasted no time responding, rattling off eight unanswered to tie the game with 4:34 remaining in the period.
The Pirates ended the first quarter with a bit of a run, jumping ahead by four, 14-10, after 10 minutes of play.
Lewis scored the second stanza's first four points, tying the contest at 14 less than a minute into the period. Trailing by two less than a minute later, Lewis found the bottom of the net again, sparking a 7-0 run for the Red Storm that saw the Johnnies take a 21-16 lead and force a Seton Hall timeout with 6:50 to go in the second quarter.
The Red Storm maintained its lead over the remainder of the half, heading into the locker room with a 32-28 advantage.
St. John's continued to build its lead in the opening minutes of the third quarter, moving ahead 39-31 on a Grant floater with 8:25 to go. The Red Storm took its first double-digit lead of the game just over a minute later when a Handford fast-break layup made it 43-33 in favor of the Johnnies.
From there, the Pirates outscored the Red Storm 10-2 over the next three and a half minutes, cutting the St. John's lead to two, 45-43, near the midway mark of the quarter.
With its advantage cut to just a pair, the Red Storm turned it on once again, firing off a 7-2 run to move back ahead by seven, 52-45, with three minutes to go in the third period.
After Grant converted on a layup in the closing minute of the third quarter to push her team ahead by nine, the Red Storm went back up by double digits at the start of the fourth, as Lewis drove to the basket and put her team up 11, 58-47.
Trailing by 12, 62-50, with seven and a half minutes to go, Seton Hall scored eight in a row over the next 100 seconds, cutting the deficit to just four, 62-58.
The Red Storm withstood the Pirates' charge once again, scoring five unanswered to move back ahead by nine, 67-58, with 3:08 to play. Handford punctuated the run with a great individual effort, swiping the ball at midcourt and charging to the basket, where she made her layup through contact before converting on the old-fashioned three-point play.
Seton Hall would not go away, scoring the game's next six points to pull within three, 67-64, its smallest deficit since the 4:04 mark of the third quarter, with 1:27 to go.
The Red Storm kept the Pirates off the board for the game's final 1:27, leaving Walsh Gymnasium with a 72-64 victory.
