Deivon Smith was understandably rusty in his return.
The senior level guard missed 9 of his 10 pictures in 28 minutes off the bench in St. John’s 68-66 win over Windfall on the Backyard Saturday afternoon.
Smith had missed three of the earlier 4 video games with a bruised proper shoulder.
He appeared to be favoring it initially, however wasn’t as involved about it as the sport went on.
“I think he’s really rusty. He had two practices where he didn’t shoot it well, but it’s to be expected,” coach Rick Pitino stated after St. John’s gained its eighth straight sport and accomplished a season sweep of Windfall. “He’s a pro. He’ll come back, he listens, he’ll do the right things.”
Smith did have six assists, three rebounds and three steals, so he contributed in different methods past scoring.
At one level late within the first half, he appeared to get hit exhausting on the shoulder on a display and winced.
However he performed by the ache and sank a 3-pointer, his lone made discipline purpose.
From then on, Smith regarded extra like himself.
The Utah switch initially suffered the harm within the first half of a Jan. 11 win over Villanova.
He tried to return per week later in opposition to Seton Corridor however wasn’t proper.
The hope is he’s again for good now.
The sport featured a prolonged delay firstly resulting from issues with the shot clock.
After the primary three possessions, play was stopped for a number of minutes because the officers and scorer’s desk received the problems corrected.
Saturday’s crowd of 19,196 was a season excessive for St. John’s and the second most within the Pitino period after final yr’s residence sport in opposition to Connecticut.
St. John’s accomplished its first season sweep of Windfall since 2021.
The Johnnies have gained double-digit league video games in consecutive seasons for the primary time since 2013-15, when Steve Lavin was the coach.
