St. John’s Falls to Marquette, 67-57

Sunday, February 9

Queens, N.Y. (Carnesecca Arena)

2:00 p.m.

St. John's University

14-10,7-6Big East

Marquette

18-6,9-4Big East

Marquette

St. John's (NY)

2/9/2020 5:43:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Alston reached the 1,000-point mark for her collegiate career

By: Victoria Lanza

Playing its second contest in three days at Carnesecca Arena, the St. John's women's basketball team suffered just its third loss of the year in Queens, falling to Marquette, 67-57, on Sunday afternoon.

A trio of players turned in double-figures for the Red Storm, with Alisha Kebbe leading the way. The senior guard was one rebound short of a double-double, registering a team-high 11 points and nine caroms.

Qadashah Hoppie and Leilani Correa chipped in 10 points apiece for the Red Storm. Freshman forward Emma Nolan finished just shy of double figures, recording all nine of her points in the first frame.

Alissa Alston netted eight points in addition to dishing out a team-high six assists to go along three steals. With her second point of the night, Alston, who played three seasons at Ole Miss before arriving at St. John's, reached the 1,000-point mark for her collegiate career.

St. John's (14-10, 7-6 BIG EAST) won the turnover battle convincingly, forcing 17 Marquette (18-6, 9-4 BIG EAST) miscues while surrendering just 11 of its own. Six of Marquette's 17 turnovers were caused by Red Storm steals.

The two teams traded blows in the early going of the contest with St. John's leading, 11-8, at the 5:22 mark. Nolan was hot from beyond the arc in the opening minutes, converting on a trio of treys to account for nine of the Red Storm's first 11 points.

Marquette began to chip away at the Johnnies' advantage, firing off eight unanswered points to take over the lead, 16-11.

With two minutes to play in the first frame, Alston drew a foul to take a trip to the charity stripe. The redshirt senior went 2-for-2 from the free throw line to pull the contest within three, 16-13. On her second made free throw, Alston picked up the 1,000th point of her career.

The Johnnies went on to outscore the Golden Eagles, 7-4, down the stretch, knotting the score at 20 after 10 minutes of action.

The tradeoff carried over into the second period with the Golden Eagles holding on to a five-point edge, 28-23, at the 5:25 mark. The Johnnies continued to battle, outscoring Marquette, 9-4, to tie the game at 32 points apiece at the half.

In the first 20 minutes of action, Nolan led the way for the home team with nine points, all of which came in the first four minutes. Kebbe paced the way for the Johnnies in rebounding at the intermission with five early boards.

Neither team managed to generate much offense coming out of the locker room. Marquette finally snapped the scoring drought for both programs with an old fashion layup. This jump started an 11-2 run for the Golden Eagles, as they took the lead, 43-34, with just under four minutes to play.

The Johnnies did not back down, using a 6-2 run to trim their deficit back down to five, 45-40, with 46 ticks left on the clock. Over the final seconds, Marquette went off for five unanswered points to take a double-digit lead, 50-40, after 30 minutes of action.

Hoppie and Correa netted the first four points of the final frame to cut the visiting Golden Eagles lead down to six, 50-44, with 8:47 to play in regulation. That was as close as the Johnnies would get, as Marquette pulled away for a 67-57 victory.

St. John's will return to action on Friday, traveling to Creighton to kick off the team's final road swing of the regular season. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.