St. John’s roughs up Providence to continue win streak

The Red Storm are rolling right now.

St. John’s scored yet another win on Saturday. The Johnnies picked up win number six in a row, notching a victory over the spiraling Providence Friars. The 92-81 win for the Red Storm props them up to 13-7 and 7-6 in Big East play.

Saturday’s W was the fifth Big East win in a row for St. John’s. It marks the first time since the 2013-14 season that they’ve gone on such a streak, and that year they reeled off a six-game winning streak to start the month of February. The Red Storm also broke a hex, and there’s a WandaVision joke I can make, but, spoilers. They racked up their first win in Friartown since all the way back on January 25, 2017. And, hat tip to Zach Braziller of the Post for this one — St. John’s won their fourth consecutive road game, something they haven’t achieved since all the way back in 1999!

St. John’s got not one, but two 20-point showings in the win. Julian Champagnie and Posh Alexander had really strong showings, with 24 and 21 points apiece. Champagnie added 10 rebounds, and assist, two steals and just one turnover to his line. Rasheem Dunn joined them in double figures with 13 points and also put up 10 assists. Marcellus Earlington nearly put them in double figures, but fell short, scoring nine points with six boards, an assist and two steals.

Nate Watson scored 30 points and had eight rebounds in the losing effort from the Friars. Watson went 13-for-20 from the floor and 4-for-6 from the FT line in what was one of the best performances of his Friar career. Noah Horchler scored 19 while A.J. Reeves put up 13. David Duke and Alyn Breed finished just shy of double figures with nine points, but the bench was outmuscled by the adversary. The Red Storm had 32 bench points to the Friars’ one. Talk about a landslide.

St. John’s will face off with lowly Butler on Tuesday, as they look to make it seven in a row and six Big East victories in a row. Providence will aim to end their three-game losing streak, meanwhile, as they take on UConn on Wednesday.