Red Storm Heads to Butler for Saturday Showdown on FOX

QUEENS, N.Y. – Fresh off a midweek victory over Creighton at Carnesecca Arena, the St. John's men's basketball team will hit the road for a Saturday afternoon contest with Butler at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on FOX, marking the second of three Red Storm games this month on national network television. Tim Brando and Donny Marshall will have the call on FOX, while John Minko will anchor the broadcast on 570 AM WMCA.

The Red Storm (15-3, 3-3 BIG EAST) is off to its best start since 1998-99, when the Johnnies rattled off 16 wins in its first 19 games en route to an Elite Eight appearance later that season. That team also recorded its 15th win of the year on Jan. 16. The only squad in program history to register its 15th victory earlier in the calendar year did so in 1985-86, when Walter Berry scored 26 points to lead St. John's to a 79-74 win over No. 13 Georgetown at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 11.

The Johnnies snapped a two-game skid and moved back to .500 in conference play with their 81-66 win over the Bluejays on Wednesday night. While the headlines were dominated by the return of Shamorie Ponds following a one-game absence, the Red Storm came away victorious thanks in large part to its defense. Creighton, who entered the game with the league's most productive offense, posted its second lowest offensive output of the campaign and fell 18.5 points shy of its season scoring average. Entering the game with the nation's second-best 3-point field goal percentage (43.9%), the Bluejays converted on just 31.4 percent of their tries from distance.

Ponds' presence in the lineup certainly did bolster the Johnnies, as the junior guard poured in a game-high 22 points while recording five assists and surrendering no turnovers in 35 minutes of action. Ponds has scored 22 or more points in each of his last four appearances and is just 32 points away from cracking the top 10 on the program's all-time scoring list.

With Ponds controlling the offense against Creighton, the Red Storm committed just nine turnovers, marking the ninth time this season that the Johnnies have coughed up 10 or fewer possessions in a single game. Without the services of Ponds in a loss to DePaul, St. John's registered more turnovers than its opponent for the first and only time so far this season.

Ponds led four St. John's players in double figures against the Bluejays. Mustapha Heron scored all 18 of his points in the second half, connecting on seven of his eight field goal attempts in the latter stanza. LJ Figueroa posted his fourth double-double of the year with 16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds while Justin Simon finished with 16 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists. Marvin Clark II, the only starter not to reach double figures, needed just three shots to record seven points. He also tallied double-digit rebounds for the second-straight outing, pulling down 10 boards.

All five St. John's starters average at least 11.2 points per game and are shooting 45.2 percent or better from the floor.

The Red Storm will look to create some separation near the top of the standings in a league where the third and eighth place teams are separated by just one game entering the weekend. The Johnnies' 3-3 start to league action is the best for the program since the 2012-13 team went 6-3 in its first nine conference contests.

Hinkle Fieldhouse has been unkind to the Johnnies, who have dropped four-straight decisions since winning their first ever contest in the building on Jan. 25, 2014. In those four losses, the Red Storm has never faltered by fewer than 20 and has suffered an average margin of defeat of 23 points.

Ponds will be looking for a bit of revenge against the Bulldogs. Last season at Hinkle Fieldhouse, he was held to just two points, the lowest single-game output of his career. Then a sophomore, Ponds did not appear to suffer any lasting effects from the performance, averaging 27.2 points over his final nine games of the season. Included in that stretch were 33 points in a win over No. 4 Duke, 26 points in a win over No. 1 Villanova and a Carnesecca Arena/Alumni Hall record 44 points in a win over Marquette.

Butler (11-7, 2-3 BIG EAST) returns home following an 87-69 drubbing of DePaul in Chicago on Wednesday night. Trailing by one in the second half, the Bulldogs rattled off a 17-0 run to put away the Blue Demons and pick up their second conference win of the season. Butler has lost just once this year at Hinkle Fieldhouse, an 84-76 loss to Georgetown in the team's conference opener.

Junior guard Kamar Baldwin leads the Bulldogs offensively, averaging 17.0 points per game to go along with 5.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists per contest. Paul Jorgensen (12.4 ppg) and Sean McDermott (10.6 ppg) also average double figures for Butler. Duke transfer Jordan Tucker posted 19 points and eight boards for the Bulldogs on Wednesday night against the Blue Demons in his ninth game with the team since becoming eligible at the end of the first semester.

Red Storm Heads to Butler for Saturday Showdown on FOX

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Players Mentioned

Marvin Clark II

LJ Figueroa

Mustapha Heron

Shamorie Ponds

Justin Simon

St. John's University Athletics