Three takeaways from St. John's win over No. 11 Marquette

St. John's Red Storm guard Kadary Richmond controls the ball against Marquette Golden Eagles forward Ben Gold during the second half at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Brad Penner
No. 12 St. John’s scored its most significant win of the season to date on Tuesday night when it rode suffocating defense and relentless rebounding to a 70-64 Big East victory over 11th-ranked Marquette before 16,521 at the Garden.
It was the ninth straight win for the Red Storm (20-3, 11-1), who remain in first place in the conference. This was the biggest regular-season game in more than a quarter century and first time they’ve prevailed in a regular-season game between two top 15 teams since they were No. 10 and beat No. 9 Connecticut on Jan. 13, 1991.
The St. John’s defense held the Golden Eagles (18-5, 9-3) to a meager 29% shooting in the second half and beat them on the backboards 50-28 to get six more shots and 13 more free throws.
Here are three takeaways from the win:
1. The Red Storm may have a depth problem.
When St. John’s defeated Providence on Saturday, four players — Zuby Ejiofor, RJ Luis Jr., Simeon Wilcher and Kadary Richmond — played 33 minutes or more and Deivon Smith came off the bench to play 28 because Aaron Scott got into early foul trouble. Against Marquette, four players — Ejiofor, Luis, Richmond and Scott — played at least 35 minutes with Luis playing the entire 40.
St. John’s survived a stretch with Smith out or hampered by a right shoulder injury but, with the schedule only getting tougher in the final stretch, it's hard to tell how it would fare if one of the first six were to get hurt or more than one were to get into foul trouble.
Smith was 1-for-23 shooting in the minutes he played after getting hurt in a collision during the first half of the win over Villanova, but he might be getting the feel back. He was 3-for-3 from the floor, including a three-pointer, in the final 4:43 against Marquette. Coach Rick Pitino said: “He's not Superman. Just take some time to get back in and he'll be fine. He's a great athlete. I've got a lot of confidence in Deivon. He’s going to be terrific. I think by Connecticut, he'll be back to 100%.”
2. Ruben Prey should be the seventh man in the rotation.
When Ejiofor has needed a rest, Pitino has often gone to 7-1 Vince Iwuchukwu as the first big man off the bench. The USC transfer has shown some offensive talent and can block shots, but 6-10 Ruben Prey has looked like the better option because of the way he plays defense and shoots on the perimeter.
Like most of the Storm players, he has the speed and length to cover smaller players on the perimeter when a defensive switch is called for. And, though he hasn’t gotten many opportunities, his rep in Europe was as an excellent shooter.
3. It’s going to be hard to match St. John’s will to win.
St. John’s continues to defy logic by winning games that, statistically, it should not win. The Storm missed 13 three-pointers and 14 free throws and still beat an excellent Marquette team with their defense and rebounding. The Storm were especially tough on defense with a win in sight in the final five minutes, limiting the Eagles to 0-for-7 shooting.
As Luis said: “We put in a lot of hard work in the preseason and you guys can see it now. We’re a very hungry group and we’re very determined to win.”