Red Storm Returns to Action at DePaul

QUEENS, N.Y. – The St. John's men's basketball team will look to snap a three-game skid when it travels to DePaul on Saturday for a matinee with the Blue Demons.

Tip-off from Wintrust Arena is set for 2 p.m. ET on FS1 and 570 AM WMCA. Vince Welch and Tim Miles will be on the television call while John Minko and Vin Parise are set to narrate the action on the Red Storm Sports Network from Learfield IMG College. That audio broadcast can also be found on Sirius XM and TuneIn.

St. John's (12-8, 1-6 BIG EAST) will aim to complete a regular season sweep of DePaul (13-6, 1-5 BIG EAST) when the two teams face off on Saturday afternoon in Chicago. The Red Storm's lone win of conference play so far came against the Blue Demons just two weeks ago inside Madison Square Garden, as Rasheem Dunn scored a season-high 19 points to go along with eight boards and five assists in a 74-67 victory. Two other Johnnies finished in double figures, as Mustapha Heron tallied 15 points and four assists and Julian Champagnie posted 11 points. As a team, the Red Storm assisted on 23 of its 25 made baskets and surrendered only eight turnovers in that win on Jan. 11.

In the last meeting between the two teams, the Red Storm forced DePaul in 19 turnovers, 11 of which were the result of St. John's steals. On the season, the Johnnies rank fourth nationally with 10.7 steals per game and have recorded double-digit thefts in seven straight and eight of their last nine appearances overall. In 17 seasons as a head coach prior to taking over at St. John's, Mike Anderson saw his teams lead the nation in steals four times and rank inside the top 30 of Division I on 14 separate occasion.

The Red Storm put forth its best effort of BIG EAST play in terms of long distance shooting on Tuesday night against Marquette, as the Johnnies sank 10 triples and connected on 35.7 percent of their chances from beyond the arc. Prior to Tuesday, the Red Storm had not hit more than six treys in any one BIG EAST game. Heron led the way in Milwaukee, sinking four of his seven tries from beyond the arc and finishing with a team-high 18 points for the second straight contest. In his last two outings, Heron, who missed three games with a sprained right ankle at the end of December, has shot 13-of-26 from the floor and connected on seven of his 11 tries from three-point range.

During non-conference play, Anderson led the Red Storm to 11 victories, the highest non-league win total for a first-year St. John's coach since the BIG EAST was formed in 1979. Two of those wins came against teams currently ranked inside the top 25, as the Johnnies topped West Virginia at MSG on Dec. 7 before beating Arizona in San Francisco on Dec. 21.

The Blue Demons, who will present the Red Storm with yet another chance at a Quad One win, are also trying to recapture some of the magic of non-conference play. DePaul posted a record of 12-1 before BIG EAST action with wins over five high-major foes, including road triumphs at Iowa and Minnesota and a home win over last year's national runner-up, Texas Tech.

Offensively, the Blue Demons are led by Paul Reed, a 6-foot-9 junior forward who is averaging 16.3 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. Last time out against DePaul, St. John's did well to limit Reed, who had just four points but still managed to pull down 12 rebounds. Reed's 13 double-doubles on the season are tied for the third highest total in Division I.

In addition to sporting the conference's top rebounder, the Blue Demons also boast the league's top distributor, as Kansas transfer Charlie Moore leads the BIG EAST and ranks 11^th nationally with 6.8 assists per game. Against the Johnnies on Jan. 11 at MSG, Moore, a Chicago native who also played a season at California, nearly tallied a triple-double with 14 points, 12 assists and eight boards.

The Red Storm will look to take both ends of a regular season series with the Blue Demons for the first time since 2016-17. Since conference realignment, the season series between St. John's and DePaul has been split four times with each team sweeping on one occasion.

After playing five of its first eight conference games on the road, the Red Storm will play four of its next five games at home beginning with a Tuesday night tilt against Villanova at Madison Square Garden. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. FS1 and 570 AM WMCA.

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Players Mentioned

Julian Champagnie

Rasheem Dunn

Mustapha Heron

St. John's University Athletics