By JB Ellis
The St. John’s Red Storm (18-12) came into the Windy City on the bubble and needed a stylish victory to help their chances to dance later in March. The Depaul Blue Demons (3-27) had other ideas as they kept the game close through the first 12 minutes on the back of Chico Carter Jr. who hit a couple of early 3’s and kept DePaul in the game.
Things would change drastically after that; The Red Storm were cleaning the glass and out rebounded DePaul 39-21 and 13-2 on the offensive glass which helped propel St. John’s to a 54-28 halftime lead. Chris Ledlum with +27 and Jordan Dingle with a +30 Carried the Red Storm combining for 38 points.
The Second half was more the same with St John’s going up 44 points with 8:49 to go before Coach Pitino emptied his bench and DePaul fought til the final buzzer with the final score St John’s 104 DePaul 77.
Up next for the Red Storm is another must win against a struggling Georgetown team (9-20) at MSG at Noon Eastern Saturday. What do the Red Storm need to do to make the field of 68 for the NCAA tournament, no one knows other than keep winning the games they are supposed to. After Saturday’s game SJU will head back to the Garden either Wednesday or Thursday for their first game of the Big East Tournament, when they will play depends on what seed they end up in. They can still get a 5 seed which gives them a first-round bye and an extra off day.
