UConn Huskies St. John's Storm
13-2 (6-0) 14-1 (5-1)
Wednesday, January 11th 2023
Time: 8:00 PM
UBS Arena
Elmont, NY
TV: SNY
Prior Meetings
ST. JOHN’S | UCONN LEADS 46-17
H: 22-7 | A: 19-9 | N: 5-1
Last Ten Games
02/18/12 SJU 57, #2 UConn 56 Storrs, Conn.
03/05/12 #4 UConn 74, #13 SJU 43 Hartford, Conn.
02/02/13 #3 UConn 71, SJU 65 Queens, N.Y.
01/04/15 #2 UConn 70, SJU 54 Queens, N.Y.
11/23/18 #2 UConn 65, SJU 55 St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
02/03/21 #3 UConn 94, SJU 62 Storrs, Conn.
02/17/21 #1 UConn 77, SJU 33 Queens, N.Y.
03/06/21 #1 UConn 77, SJU 41 Uncasville, Conn.
01/23/22 #9 UConn 75, SJU 57 Queens, N.Y.
02/25/22 #7 UConn 93, SJU 38 Hartford, Conn
St. John's Season to Date
The Red Storm has had a very good season to date. They crashed the Top 25 after starting the season 13-0 before losing big to Seton Hall 72-51. They bounced back with a 71-52 win over Xavier.
In those first 13 games, they had one challenging game, beating at the time No. 13 Creighton 66-62. The other 12 wins? They were against weaker teams. Not a game among them that St. John's wasn't favored. And some of those were much closer than they should have been.
Still, a great start for St. John's.
PREGAME INTERVIEWS
To be added later
Comparative Team Statistics
(leader in bold)
UConn St. Johns's
80.7 PPG 69.3
61.2 Defensive PPG 54.5
19.5 Scoring Margin 14.8
51.7 Field Goal % 44.8
36.0 Defensive FG% 36.5
41.5 Three Point % 35.5
29.3 Defensive 3PT% 26.4
76.4 Free Throw % 75.6
42.0 Rebounds/game 37.8
13.5 Rebounding Margin 5.9
21.2 Assists per game 14.2
17.4 Turnover per game 14.8
1.2 Assists/TO ratio 1.0
7.1 Steals per game 6.0
4.1 Blocks per game 4.6
UCONN
are clickable to see their Bios
UConn Starters
UConn Injuries
Concussion Protocal
OUT FOR THE SEASON
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St. John's
St. John's Starters
St. John's Bench
St. John's will be the most experienced team that UConn will face all year. They start three redshirt seniors and two Grad Students. Two players are 23 years old. And the three players that get the most minutes off the bench are a senior, a redshirt senior and a grad student. The entire top eight players could graduate after this season. Crazy.
However, being in women's college basketball that long doesn't mean they have great experience playing together.
Three of the starters are transfers from other programs playing in their first year at St. John's. One transferred for their junior season and is playing in their third year. And only one was recruited by the Red Storm and has been there her entire career.
The bench is the same story. One player started at St. John's and two players are playing their second season there as a transfer.
But they seemded to have done a good job meshing.
Jayla Everett, a 5'10" RS Senior guard transfer from Pitt, is the leading scorer on the team at 17.3 PPG. She only shoots 42.1% from the field but just as good from deep, shooting 41.8% on threes. She takes over 6 threes per game by far the leader on this team. UConn will have to stay close to her.
Kadaja Bailey, a 6' RS Senior guard, is the only other double digit scorer on the team at 13.6 PPG. One of the few players that has spent her full career with St. John's. She can shoot the three ball at 39% but only takes around 3 per game. Still, she is a player that can get hot from deep.
Jillian Archer, a 6'2" Grad Student forward is a transfer from Georgetown. At 8.9 PPG and 9.0 RPG, she is close to a double double player.
Mimi Reid is a 5'8" Grad Student guard who transferred in from Ole Miss. She is a quick player but doesn't look for her offense. She is more of a distriutor averaging 3.6 assists per game.
The last starter is RS Senior Rayven Peeples, a 6'3" forward who transferred in from a small college Northwest Florida for her junior season. She leads the team in FG% at 60.1%. Mostly from right around the basket. Averaging 8.7 RPG, she does a nice job in the paint.
Unique Drake is the main player off the bench and gets starter minutes. The 5'7" senior guard is the other three point threat that UConn will have to keep an eye on. She shoots 36.8% on those long range shots. She is not careful with the ball and Uconn will look to turn her over.
The Two Danielles, Patterson a transfer from Indiana and Cosgrove a transfer from Notre Dame, round out the bench players. They bring some size to the team but not much else. Don't expect a lot of minutes from either player unless the starting bigs get in foul trouble.
So, there you have it. The lowdown on the St. John's' rotation. UConn seems to have an advantage at every position. With Edwards back, I'm not sure the Red Storm can handle her and Juhasz in the post. Nika will give Reid fits and my guess is Griffin will stick like glue to their leading scorer Everett.
The wild card is Azzi. Even rusty after being out for so long, if she plays more than token minutes she will hit her share of shots.
Final Prediction
Records can be deceiving. Yes, St. John's is 13-1 but as I already pointed out, they have only played one team considered a challenge in Creighton. UConn is not only battle tested with their difficult schedule, they have been tested by the injury gods and are really tough.
I think UConn's defense will befuddle the Red Storm and hold them to under 60 points. UConn should get to the upper 70's at a minimum.
So I'm guessing UConn by 18+.
GO UCONN!!!
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