St. John’s Drops Nail-Biter at Monmouth, 74-69

Friday, November 10

West Long Branch, N.J. (OceanFirst Bank Center)

7 p.m.

St. John's University

1-1,0-0Big East

Monmouth

1-1,0-0CAA

St. John's (NY)

Monmouth

11/10/2023 10:32:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Unique Drake went for 24 points on Friday night

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – The St. John's women's basketball team led for 31:42 of its contest on Friday night but ultimately fell to Monmouth, 74-69.

The Hawks despite trailing for the majority of the game orchestrated a late-game surge to notch a home victory.

Unique Drake kept up her hot start to the season after pouring in a game-high 24 and matched a personal best 10 made field goals. Over her first two contests, Drake is averaging 25.5 points per game after pouring in a career-high 27 in the season opener against LIU on Monday night. She has been superb from downtown draining eight threes through two games at a 57.1 percent clip.

After starting the year off with a double-double, Jillian Archer nearly reached that once again tallying 15 points and eight boards at OceanFirst Bank Center. The graduate student went a perfect 5-for-5 from the charity stripe.

Amber Brown reached a milestone recording her 1,000^th career point during the second quarter. The graduate transfer from Pittsburgh tied Archer and Monmouth's Bella Kranbuhl for the game-high in rebounds with eight.

Ber'Nyah Mayo started off with a second-chance triple on a dish from Archer to open the scoring. After the two sides were never separated by more than one possession before a 7-0 run gave the Red Storm a 21-16 advantage at the end of the first frame.

During the second quarter, St. John's continued to grow its advantage steadily as Skye Owen buried a triple off the fastbreak to make it 24-16. In the middle of the frame five-straight points from Archer gave the Johnnies a 13-point lead, 34-21.

With just 1:28 left to play in the half, Brown finished through traffic off a dish from Archer for an and-one that marked the 1,000-career point milestone for the Monroe, La., native.

St. John's (1-1, 0-0 BIG EAST) went to the locker room in front, 41-32.

In the third quarter, a Mayo lay-up and another 3-pointer from Drake propelled the Red Storm to its largest lead of the night, 46-32. However, the Hawks quickly responded with a 6-0 spurt and hovered around an eight-point deficit for the rest of the stanza. A mid-range jumper from Owen brought the lead back to double-digits, 60-50, heading into the final 10 minutes.

In the finale frame, the Red Storm made its first four field goals to start off the final quarter before the Hawks tightened up defensively. Monmouth proceeded to climb back in the game and Jania Hall finished the go-ahead and one, 69-68, with 1:54 left to play.

Down two, 71-69, with the ball, the game's top-scorer Drake got into the lane but the lay-in barely bounced out and the Red Storm were forced to foul. The Hawks were able to convert from the free-throw line and close out the victory at home

Up next, the Johnnies will host Big Ten foe Penn State on Thursday night at Carnesecca Arena. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.