RJ Is Big East Player Of The Year
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Andrew Rosario
It didn’t take long for the St. John’s Red Storm to show why they were the Big East regular season champions when they faced the Butler Bull Dogs in the second round of the Big East tournament Thursday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. Butler took out Providence the day before in their first round match-up. The Bull Dogs and Red Storm met twice during the regular season with Butler losing both game by a combined 14 points. Butler was hoping their momentum from their game one victory would carry over. On the other hand, St. John’s did not want to give the Bull Dogs a reason they could come away with a major upset.
The Red Storm set the tone very early as they jumped out to a 18-3 lead after Big East player of the year RJ Luis Jr drained a 3-pointer. When Simeon Wilcher connects on a 2-pointer, the lead ballooned to 25-8. Butler would close the gap to 11 (37-26) at halftime with Jahmyl Telford leading the team with 8 points. The suffocating Johnnies defense held the Bull Dogs to 34% from the field and 29% (5-17) from 3-point land. The Red Storm shot 39% from the floor and did not fare much better for 3-point land missing 9 of 13 shots 30%. St. John’s was big on the offensive boards grabbing 9 rebounds.
The second half was more like scrimmage for the Red Storm as they began by out scoring Butler 19-14 taking a 16-point lead (56-40) with11:34 left. Butler never made obligatory run as the closest they would get would be 12-points as they were outscored 41-31 in the second half of the 78-57 loss. Luis Jr led all scorers with 20 points. Butler’s Patrick McCaffery led his team with 16.
St. John’s Big East coach of the year Rick Pitino talked about the team’s performance after. “Basically l told the guys that a 5 plus performance is a Michael Jordan performance. “We were a 4-star tonight, he began. “Good enough to win. We did a lot of good things tonight.” Aaron Scott chipped in 15 points and said it was important the team got off to a fast start. “It was very important. We had two close games. We didn’t want this game to be close at all, so the first four minutes we emphasized that.”
St. John’s will play the winner of Xavier and Marquette in the semi-final game Friday night. It will be their first appearance in 23 years.
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