St. John’s Routs Florida, 79-60, Behind 37-Point Night from Unique Drake

Thursday, March 21

Gainesville, Fla. (Exactech Arena at Stephen O'Connell Center)

7 p.m.

St. John's University

18-14,11-7Big East

Florida

16-16,5-11SEC

St. John's (NY)

Florida

Unique Drake scored a game-high 37 points to go along with four assists and three rebounds.

St. John’s Routs Florida, 79-60, Behind 37-Point Night from Unique Drake

3/21/2024 11:26:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Drake’s 37 points were the highest-ever by a St. John’s player in a postseason game

GAINESVILLE, Fla – Unique Drake went for a career-high 37 points as the St. John's women's basketball team routed Florida, 79-60, in the Women's Basketball invitation Tournament (WBIT) First Round.

St. John's earns a postseason win for the second-straight season and advances to the WBIT Second Round to face Toledo on the road on Sunday, March 24 at 2 p.m.

Drake led the offensive onslaught and scored a career-high 37 points. The redshirt senior becomes just the third player in program history to ever score 35 points or more twice in a single-season. The Columbia, S.C., native made a career-best 13 field goals and her point total was the highest ever by a St. John's player in a postseason game.

St. John's (18-14, 11-7 BIG EAST) fired on all cylinders offensively shooting 60.8 percent from the field, the squad's highest mark since it shot 62.0 percent from field-goal range on Jan. 26, 2020, against Seton Hall.

The Red Storm shot well from the charity stripe going 12-for-15 (80%) from the free throw line. Drake paced the squad going 8-for-8 from the line.

Jillian Archer chipped in 15 points and shot a perfect 7-for-7 from field goal range. The graduate student added eight boards.

Ber'Nyah Mayo chipped in 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting and dished out a game-high six assists.

The team's three leading scorers, Drake, Archer and Mayo, combined for 68 of the Johnnies' 79 points on Thursday night inside Exactech Arena at the Stephen O'Connell Center.  The Johnnies totaled 15 assists to just a season-low six turnovers for a ratio of 2.5.

The Red Storm got off to an incredibly hot start cashing in on eight of its first 10 field goal attempts. Drake got the scoring started with a mid-range jumper. Phoenix Gedeon got a runner to go and then drew a charge on the other end to force a turnover. Drake continued to fill it up, sinking four straight, highly-contested shots to build the Red Storm advantage. Mayo created a steal underneath Florida's basket before taking off in transition and finding a streaking Jailah Donald for the easy lay-in to take a double-digit lead, 23-13. The Gators scored the final five points of the first frame to trim the Red Storm lead to five, 23-18.

In the second quarter, Mayo drilled a triple off a feed from Gedeon as the Johnnies stayed hot offensively. Through the middle of the second stanza, the Johnnies orchestrated a 14-2 run spearhead by Archer and Drake to take a 20-point advantage, 42-22. In the final two minutes, Florida closed the half with a 7-2 spurt, but the Johnnies took a 15-point cushion, 44-29, into the halftime break.

In the first half, the Red Storm shot 85.7 from two-point range and 67.9 percent total in the opening 20 minutes. The 44 points tied for the highest first-half total on the season, the Red Storm posted 44 opening half points against Loyola Maryland on Nov. 29.

In the start of the latter half, Drake kept it up offensively nailing a triple. She continued to steady the Red Storm's sizeable lead during the third frame scoring 11 of the group's 17 third-quarter points. Mayo made an acrobatic scoop and score lay-in as the horn sounded to make it 61-38 heading into the final frame.

The Red Storm kept growing its lead in the fourth as Drake's third triple of the night produced the team's largest lead of the night, 72-43, with 7:19 left to play. In her 146^th appearance, which ties Kadaja Bailey for the most in St. John's men's or women's basketball history, the Columbia, S.C., native scored her final points at the free throw line, securing the third-most points in a single game in program history. Drake trails only Cozette Ballentine who tallied two consecutive 40-point games over a four-day span in February 1991.

The Red Storm will travel to Toledo to take on the Rockets inside Savage Arena on Sunday. Tip-off is schedule for 2 p.m. on ESPN+.  The two teams will meet for the first time Nov. 29, 1997.