Rick Pitino was proper.
The betting line for this sport was approach off.
St. John’s ought to’ve been favored by much more than the opening line of 14.5 factors.
After all, Pitino felt the unfold was properly too excessive, predicting a “flat out war” for the Johnnies of their Huge East opener in opposition to DePaul on Tuesday evening.
His gamers could have used that as their very own private bulletin board materials as a result of they handled DePaul like a low-major that didn’t should share the identical Carnesecca Area court docket.
The Johnnies shook off their latest gradual begins and crushed DePaul, 89-61, to open up league play with a convincing victory.
The Blue Demons, coming off a blowout win over Wichita State, are improved below new coach Chris Holtmann.
It simply didn’t seem like it in opposition to the Johnnies.
St. John’s led by 11 at halftime and scored 17 of the primary 21 factors after the break to show this right into a laugher.
It was over by the primary media timeout of the second half.
An aggressive Kadary Richmond made positive of that, scoring 9 of his 18 factors within the run.
RJ Luis led St. John’s with 19 factors and 5 rebounds, Simeon Wilcher added 16 factors and Zuby Ejiofor adopted with 12 factors, seven rebounds and 4 blocks.
Making his first begin since a one-game suspension, Deivon Smith continued his spectacular play of late with 9 factors, eight assists, six rebounds and 5 steals.
It was flat out domination.
St. John’s was plus-12 on the glass, racked up 56 factors within the paint and turned 20 DePaul turnovers into 27 factors.
Most spectacular was the Johnnies’ 3-point protection.
The Blue Demons entered among the finest 3-point taking pictures groups within the nation at a shade over 40 % and St. John’s was 234th nationally defending the 3-point arc.
It held DePaul to 30 % (6 of 20) from distance.
