Red Storm Returns to MSG for Saturday Night Showdown with Seton Hall

QUEENS, N.Y. – The St. John's men's basketball team will play its final regular season home game at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, welcoming cross-river rival Seton Hall to "The World's Most Famous Arena."

Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. on FS1 with Tim Brando and Len Elmore on the call. The St. John's IMG Sports Network broadcast with John Minko and Brandon Tierney will be available on Sirius XM 201 and streaming channel 964.

The Red Storm (19-8, 7-7 BIG EAST) and Pirates (16-10, 7-7 BIG EAST) enter the weekend tied for third in the conference standings, four games behind Villanova in second with four games to play.

The Johnnies checked in at no. 49 in Friday's latest edition of the NET rankings, down five spots from their position prior to the Providence loss. Georgetown has climbed 12 spots to no. 69 following its home win over Villanova, bumping the Red Storm's Quad One win total to six on the season.

St. John's will look to enact a bit of revenge on its longtime BIG EAST rival, having dropped its conference opener in Newark in controversial fashion on Dec. 29. With the Red Storm leading by one and less than four seconds to play, LJ Figueroa appeared to steal and inbounds pass that would have undoubtedly sealed the game in favor of St. John's. A whistle negated the effort; however, as Seton Hall got another look at a game winner, which Shavar Reynolds sank at the buzzer to give the Pirates a 76-74 victory.

The Johnnies are 4-2 in their last six BIG EAST contests with their only losses coming at the hands of Providence. Three of those four victories are Quad One wins in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee while two have come against opponents ranked in the top 13 of the Associated Press Top 25 at the time of competition.

By virtue of a 71-65 comeback victory over Villanova in its last Garden appearance, St. John's secured a 3-1 mark during its four regular season games against the league's top two teams. The Johnnies are the only BIG EAST team to have defeated Marquette this season and the only squad in the NCAA to have beaten Marquette at Fiserv Forum.

In its last contest at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, St. John's erased a 19-point deficit en route to an upset of the defending national champs. Trailing by 14 with just over 12 minutes to play in the second half, the Johnnies stormed back and secured their first victory over the Wildcats at The Garden since 2002 in Jay Wright's first year on the bench at Villanova. LJ Figueroa scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half of Sunday's win, sinking three of his four three-point attempts in the latter stanza. After going 4-for-20 from deep in a five-game stretch beginning with the Red Storm's win at Creighton on Jan. 30, Figueroa has made five of his last eight tries from three-point range. Defensively, Figueroa and the Red Storm limited Villanova's veteran duo of Eric Paschall and Phil Booth to a combined 4-of-22 shooting effort from the field.

Seton Hall heads to MSG on the heels of a loss at home to Xavier on Wednesday night. Trailing by 16 with 6:23 to play, the Pirates narrowed the deficit to one in the closing seconds before a potential game-winning shot missed at the buzzer.

Myles Powell, the league's second leading scorer, paces the Pirates with 21.7 points per game while Myles Cale and Quincy McKnight are also averaging double figures with 10.5 and 10.4 points per game, respectively.

The Pirates, who played three of their last four at home, are 3-6 as the visitor this season, including an 81-75 win over Creighton in their last road tilt.

Red Storm Returns to MSG for Saturday Night Showdown with Seton Hall

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Players Mentioned

LJ Figueroa

St. John's University Athletics