Red Storm Readies for No. 12/12 Villanova

QUEENS, N.Y. – The St. John's men's basketball team will wrap its two-game ranked road swing on Wednesday when it heads to No. 12/12 Villanova.

Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on FS1 with Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery on the call from Finneran Pavilion. Fans can also listen to the contest on 570 AM WMCA with John Minko and Tarik Turner narrating the action from The City of Brotherly Love. That audio broadcast, presented by Learfield-IMG College, can also be found on TuneIn and Sirius XM.

St. John's (14-13, 3-11 BIG EAST) will look to snap a two-game slide when it travels to Villanova (21-6, 10-4 BIG EAST) on Wednesday. The Wildcats, who currently sit third in the conference standings behind Seton Hall and Creighton, have won four straight since falling to the Pirates at Wells Fargo Center on Feb. 8.

Wednesday will present the Red Storm with yet another opportunity at a Quad One win. The Johnnies boast three of those top-tier victories on their resume, having defeated Arizona at a neutral site, West Virginia at home and DePaul on the road. As of Tuesday morning, the Johnnies rank 70^th in the NET standings.

St. John's came out on the wrong end of a decision against Seton Hall on Sunday, falling to the Pirates by a score of 81-65 at Prudential Center. LJ Figueroa scored a game-high 19 points for the Red Storm, connecting on four of his nine tries from beyond the arc and sinking all three of his free throw attempts. Figueroa, who leads the team in scoring at 14.8 points per game this season, has connected on 61 triples, just four shy of tying for ninth on the program's single-season record list in that category. The Lawrence, Mass., native has been particularly effective away from home, averaging 17.7 points per outing in true road contests this season.

Figueroa was not the only Johnnie to register an impressive outing against Seton Hall on Sunday, as Julian Champagnie logged a double-double for the second time in his last five games and the third time overall this season. The Bishop Loughlin product tallied 14 points and 11 rebounds against the Pirates, finishing one off his career-high scoring total and matching the best output of his St. John's tenure on the boards. Since returning to the starting lineup five games ago, the Brooklyn native has finished in double figures four times, averaging 12.4 points and 8.2 rebounds per contest.

Josh Roberts narrowly missed becoming the second Johnnie with a double-double on Sunday, finishing with eight points and 10 rebounds. The sophomore from Troy, Ala., sank all four of his free throw tries, marking the best outing of his career from the charity stripe.

The Johnnies had an uncharacteristic afternoon at Seton Hall in terms of taking care of the basketball, coughing up 14 turnovers and tallying just seven steals of their own. On the season, the Red Storm leads the BIG EAST and ranks third nationally with 10.1 thefts per outing. St. John's also ranks third in Division I with an average turnover margin of +5.7.

The Wildcats will look to secure their third five-game winning streak of the season when they welcome the Red Storm to Finneran Pavilion. However, St. John's has enjoyed more success against Villanova over the past few seasons than any other program in the BIG EAST, as the Johnnies were the only team in the conference to split its regular season series with the Wildcats in both 2017-18 and 2018-19. In February of 2018, St. John's upended No. 1 Villanova at the Wells Fargo Center, notching its first win over a No. 1 team since 1985. A year later, the Red Storm erased a 19-point first-half deficit to take down the defending national champions at Madison Square Garden.

Villanova features five players averaging double figures on the season led by sophomore forward Saddiq Bey at 15.8 points per game. The Largo, Md., native is shooting 46.3 percent from beyond the arc, good enough for third in the nation in that category.

Junior point guard Collin Gillespie averages 15.7 points per game while also leading the team and ranking fifth in the conference with 4.6 assists per outing. Gillespie sports a 2.4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and converts at an 81.8 percent clip from the free throw line.

St. John's will meet Villanova, the most frequently played opponent in its history, for the 122^nd time in a series that dates back to 1909. The two teams have been evenly matched over the past century-plus, as St. John's holds a slim 62-59 advantage over the Wildcats all-time.

After taking on Villanova, the Red Storm will return home for its third consecutive ranked contest, welcoming No. 10/11 Creighton to Carnesecca Arena for a 12 p.m. tip on Sunday.

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Players Mentioned

Julian Champagnie

LJ Figueroa

Josh Roberts

St. John's University Athletics