RJ Luis Jr. made a career-high 5 3-pointers and second-seeded St. John’s discovered its taking pictures stroke en path to an 83-53 victory over No. 15 seed Omaha within the first spherical of the NCAA Event on Thursday evening in Windfall, R.I.
St. John’s (31-4) earned its first match win since 2000. Coach Rick Pitino and the Massive East champs will face John Calipari and No. 10 seed Arkansas within the second spherical Saturday.
Luis led all scorers with 22 factors and added eight rebounds. He made 5 of 8 makes an attempt from deep as St. John’s — a 30.4 % 3-point taking pictures crew coming into the evening — matched a season excessive with 14 3-pointers to counter Omaha clogging the lanes.
Simeon Wilcher scored 13 factors for the Pink Storm. Kadary Richmond had 10 factors, eight rebounds and 6 assists, whereas Zuby Ejiofor added 10 factors, seven boards, 4 assists and three blocks.
JJ White posted 15 factors and 5 assists to guide Omaha (22-13), which was taking part in in its first Division I NCAA Event after claiming the Summit League championship.
Marquel Sutton scored 11 for the Mavericks, and Isaac Ondekane pulled down 10 of his 11 rebounds within the first half.
St. John’s missed its first 5 photographs and let Omaha stake out a 7-0 lead, prompting an early timeout from Pitino. After Richmond obtained the Pink Storm on the board, Luis scored eight St. John’s factors in a row, bookended by a pair of 3-pointers.
The Mavericks moved forward 20-14 earlier than St. John’s turned the tables. Wilcher minimize the lead in half with a 3-pointer, prompting a 16-2 run that featured triples by Deivon Smith, Ruben Prey and one other from Wilcher.
Omaha scored six in a row to chop it to 30-28, however Vince Iwuchukwu obtained inside for a bucket that become a three-point play with two seconds left, giving St. John’s a 33-28 halftime edge.
Luis saved the Pink Storm 3-point occasion going by making one 14 seconds into the second half. Teammate Aaron Scott splashed a trey, then Luis and Wilcher went on a two-on-one that resulted in an alley-oop dunk by Luis, giving St. John’s agency management at 43-30.
Luis knocked down one other two triples at hand St. John’s its first 20-point lead with 13:14 to go. Critically, the Pink Storm had assists on their first eight made discipline targets of the half whereas committing zero turnovers.
St. John’s held the Mavericks to 7-of-34 field-goal taking pictures (20.6 %) and outrebounded them 31-19 within the second half.
–Area Stage Media
