St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Awaits 10th-Consecutive Postseason Destination
3/13/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
QUEENS, N.Y. - With the announcement of the 2017 women's basketball postseason tournaments coming tonight, St. John's women's basketball Head Coach Joe Tartamella has his team ready for a 10th-consecutive postseason berth.
In the midst of a fourth-straight 20-win season, the Red Storm has been selected to play in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship or the Women's National Invitational Tournament in each of the past nine years, one of just 24 programs in the nation to do so. Overall, St. John's has made 10 appearances in the NCAA Tournament and five WNIT appearances since 1983.
St. John's is led by a trio of All-BIG EAST selections in Jade Walker, Aaliyah Lewis, and Alisha Kebbe. Walker was an All-BIG EAST First Team honoree, while Lewis was an Honorable Mention and the league's Co-Defensive Player of the Year. Kebbe, the only freshman to win the conference's Freshman of the Week honor four times this season, was a BIG EAST All-Freshman Team pick.
A program that prides itself on a relentless defensive effort, the Red Storm leads the country in three point field goal defense, limiting opponents to just 25.1 percent from behind the arc. As a unit, St. John's ranks 16th in the nation in scoring defense, holding teams to just 55.1 points per game. Throughout the 2016-17 campaign, the Johnnies held their opponent to 50 points or less 10 times this season.
Picked sixth in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches' Poll, the Johnnies finished the regular season in a tie for fourth in the conference and defeated Villanova, 56-40, to advance to the semifinals of the conference tournament for the fourth year in a row.
The 2017 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship bracket will be announced tonight at 7 p.m. on ESPN, while the WNIT field will be announced shortly following.
