UConn Huskies St. John's Storm
24-4 (16-1) 19-7 (10-7)
Tuesday, Febuary 21st 2023
Time: 7:00 PM
XL Center
Hartford, Ct.
TV: SNY
Prior Meetings
ST. JOHN’S | UCONN LEADS 47-17
H: 22-7 | A: 20-9 | 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
01/11/23 #4 UConn 82, SJU 52, Queens, N.Y.
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. They beat Memphis 61-57, UTSA 69-64, and a terrible Butler team 65-57. Not very impressive wins.
Still, a great start for St. John's.
But since then, they have gone 6-7 losing twice to Seton Hall 72-51 and 68-58, twice to Villanova 64-61 and 73-57, once to UConn 82-52, the rematch with Creighton 81-65, and as UConn fans know a tough Marquette team 61-38.
The Johnnies have dropped to fifth place in the conference.
UCONN
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OUT FOR THE SEASON
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St. John's
St. John's Starters
St. John's Bench
Just like before the last time these two teams matched up, 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.
After a great start, going 13-0, they seemed to have done a good job meshing. Not so much since then.
UConn beat them in NY back in early January 82-52.
Jayla Everett, a 5'10" RS Senior guard transfer from Pitt, is the leading scorer on the team at 16.0 PPG. She only shoots 41.6% from the field but just as good from deep, shooting 42.2% on threes. She takes around 6 threes per game by far the leader on this team. UConn will have to stay close to her. She had 10 points against UConn in the first game and was 0-2 on threes.
Kadaja Bailey, a 6' RS Senior guard, is the only other double digit scorer on the team at 13.1 PPG. One of the few players that has spent her full career with St. John's. She can shoot the three ball at 34% but only takes around 3 per game. Still, she is a player that can get hot from deep. She led St. John's in scoring in the first UConn game scoring 17 points and hitting her only three pointer.
Jillian Archer, a 6'2" Grad Student forward is a transfer from Georgetown. At 7.9 PPG and 8.1 RPG, she is close to a double double player. She only scored 2 points in the first matchup.
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 3.1 assists per game. She was 0-7 from the field in the first matchup scoring all her three points from the free throw line.
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 58.7%. Mostly from right around the basket. Averaging 8.6 RPG, she does a nice job in the paint. She only had one basket but did haul down 11 rebounds against the Huskies in the first game.
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. She had one basket against UConn and it was a three pointer for her only points in the first match up.
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. Patterson had 10 points in 21 minutes in the first matchup and Cosgrove only had 3 points in 11 minutes.
So, there you have it. The lowdown on the St. John's' rotation. UConn seems to have an advantage at every position.
I'm pretty sure the Red Storm can't handle Edwards and Juhasz in the post. Edwards had 15 points and 7 rebounds and Juhusz had 18 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists. I'd look for the Huskies to go inside as often as possible
Nika will give Reid fits and had 9 points and 5 assists in the first game. My guess is Griffin will stick like glue to their leading scorer Everett and did hold her to 10 points the first time they met.
Lou led the team in scoring with 20 points the first time they met. She was amazing from deep in that game going 4-5. I don't expect that again but I wouldn't be surprised if she beat the 20 point mark.
This will be the third game for Ducharme. she played 20 minutes the first game and 22 the second game. Look for 24 minutes in this game. And more production.
Final Prediction
Records can be deceiving. Yes, St. John's was 13-1 but as I already pointed out, they had 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. And they beat St. John's by 30 points on the road.
UConn is just more talented at every position, and with Ducharme back, their bench will bring more than the St. John's bench.
I think UConn's defense will handle the Red Storm and hold them to under 50 points. Will this be the game that UConn breaks out with more scoring? Nahhh.....I look for low 70's.
So I'm guessing UConn by 25+.
GO UCONN!!!
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