St. John's Rolls Past Seton Hall, 82-66, on Sunday

Sunday, January 26

South Orange, N.J. (Walsh Gymnasium)

6:30 p.m.

St. John's University

13-7,6-3Big East

Seton Hall

12-8,5-4Big East

St. John's (NY)

Seton Hall

1/26/2020 10:11:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Five players finish in double figures for the Red Storm

By: Victoria Lanza

The St. John's women's basketball team jumped out to an early lead and never looked back on Sunday night at Walsh Gymnasium, registering a wire-to-wire victory over Seton Hall, 82-66.

The win marked the Johnnies' first inside Walsh Gymnasium since the 2015-16 season, a year that saw the Red Storm go on to capture the conference crown.

As a team, St. John's (13-7, 6-3 BIG EAST) shot a season-best 62 percent from the floor, including a 47.4 percent shooting clip from beyond the arc. The Johnnies forced the Pirates into 14 turnovers on the evening, converting those miscues into 21 points. In addition, St. John's outscored Seton Hall, 15-5, in fast-break situations.

For the second time this season, five different players finished in double figures for the Red Storm. Qadashah Hoppie led the way, notching her eighth 20-point performance of the season. The Staten Island native converted on seven of her 10 attempts from the floor, including 5-of-7 from three-point range.

Alissa Alston finished with 15 points on the evening. The redshirt senior also grabbed three rebounds and dished out three assists en route to the Red Storm's win.

Raven Farley had a career night for St. John's, chipping in a personal best 13 points. Kadaja Bailey netted 12 points for the Johnnies, while also pulling down a team-high seven rebounds.

Alisha Kebbe rounded out the scorers who finished in double figures, draining 11 points to go along with six rebounds for the visiting team.

Tiana England closed out play just shy of a double-double performance with a team-high nine assists and eight points.

The Johnnies controlled the momentum in the early going of the contest, firing off a 7-2 run out of the gate to lead by five at the 7:38 mark. The Pirates (12-7, 5-3 BIG EAST) started to inch away at the Red Storm's advantage, getting as close as one following a free throw by Shadeen Samuels. The Johnnies held on down the stretch to lead by one possession, 16-14, after 10 minutes of action.

In the opening seconds of the second quarter, Bailey made a drive that jumpstarted a 16-6 run for the Johnnies. St. John's surge was capped off by a beyond-the-arc shot off the hands of Leilani Correa to give the Red Storm a double-digit lead, 32-20, with four minutes remaining in the frame.

Seton Hall continued to battle, whittling the Johnnies' lead down to eight with five ticks left before the break. That was as close as the Pirates would get as Farley put an exclamation point on the half by banking in a buzzer beater to extend the Johnnies lead to 10, 40-30, at the intermission.

The Johnnies forced six Seton Hall turnovers in the first 20 minutes of action, converting those miscues into 10 first-half points. Hoppie paced the way for the team offensively through the first two periods with 13 points on a 5-of-6 shooting from the floor.

St. John's came out firing in the third, unleashing nine unanswered points to build its lead up to 19, 49-30. Farley closed out the Red Storm's early run with back-to-back buckets.

Seton Hall responded, converting on a pair of shots before the Red Storm rattled off another 9-0 run to take its largest lead of the evening, 58-34.

With Seton Hall down 20, 63-41, entering the final 10 minutes of action, the home team made one final offensive push. The Pirates kicked off the fourth quarter with a 16-0 run, cutting its deficit to six, 63-57.

Hoppie snapped the Johnnies' fourth quarter scoring drought with a shot from three-point range, extending her team's lead back up to nine, 66-57. The Pirates' Jasmine Smith responded with a layup to knock the Red Storm's edge back down to seven, 66-59, with under six minutes remaining in the game.

With the shot clock winding down midway through the final frame, Alston, who led the conference in three-point percentage entering Sunday's showdown, drained a shot from Queens to put the Johnnies back on top by double-digits, 69-59.

This fueled a fire within for the visiting team as the Johnnies outscored the Pirates, 13-7, down the stretch for the win.

The Johnnies will continue their three-game road swing on Friday evening with a trip to Villanova for a rematch with the Wildcats at Finneran Pavilion. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. on BEDN.