It was last winter that the St. John’s women’s basketball team started off its 2004-2005 campaign scorching hot on an undefeated streak of 11-0.
History clearly has a tendency to repeat itself. St. John’s has now won 20-straight non-conference games.
The Red Storm remained undefeated over the last weekend with a pair of wins over Wake Forest and Northwestern, improving to 7-0 and winning the Roger and Mildred White Invitational.
“I think this weekend we really played well and our offense was predicated on our defense,” said St. John’s coach Kim Barnes Arico. “We were able to shut down their best players. Kia [Wright] did a tremendous job for us shutting down their top scorers on defense and we really played well as a team. On different nights, different people are scoring and Danielle (Chambers), Ange (Clark), and Kia are consistent but a lot of others are following their lead.”
On Friday night, St. John’s pounded Wake Forest 70-38 in the tournament’s opening round match up. Clark led the team with 18 points, freshman Monique McLean added a career-high 15 points and Kia Wright pitched in with 14.
After holding a brief lead at the 7:55 mark in the first half, the Demon Deacons were outpaced by a 20-4 Johnnies run to finish the half, and give St. John’s a 38-23 lead. The Red Storm would score 25 points off turnovers and out-rebounded the Demon Deacons, 49 to 35.
The next day the St. John’s kept in sync with their offensive explosion with a 95-53 win over Northwestern to capture the tournament title. Once again it was Clark who fueled the Red Storm effort, tallying 19 points and 11 rebounds while being named tournament MVP. Danielle Chambers added 14 points and six rebounds, leading to an all-tournament selection. Wright and McLean added 12 points. It was Wright’s seventh straight double-figure scoring game.
The Wildcats were up 15-14 early on before St. John’s took a 24-9 run into the locker room at halftime to lead 39-23.
The Red Storm out-rebounded Northwestern, 56 to 33, and dominated in the paint out-scoring them 58-20 in the post.
“We’re playing defense and we’re trying to get better every single day,” Barnes Arico said. “We try not to look too far ahead, and take it one game at a time and try to get better for each one. We just need to work on our game plan and work on the team we’re going to face. It helps we’re out-rebounding our opponents.”
MARQUETTE 60, ST. JOHN’S 57
In a tight game in a tough road environment, St. John’s women’s basketball team saw its season-opening seven-game win streak snapped at the hands of Marquette, 60-57, at the Al McGuire Center on Tuesday night. Clark led the team with 15 points in the loss.
