St. John’s women’s basketball is getting the job done, and it’s getting it done in a big way.
The Red Storm defeated UMass 84-68 Tuesday night at Carnesecca arena in another blowout victory, and the team has scored 101 more points than its opponents during its four game winning streak.
“One of the great things about this team is that they can score,” said St. John’s head coach Kim Barnes-Arico.
Despite the lopsided outcome, the Johnnies trailed UMass early in the contest, as the Minutewomen were effective in knocking down shots from the field.
UMass opened up the scoring about eight minutes into the game with a 9-2 to push its lead to 27-17.
“I think maybe because of [the team’s] inexperience and they’re youth sometimes they can take for granted that they can score,” Barnes-Arico said.
However the duo of Monique McClean and Sky Lindsay prevented the game from slipping away from St. John’s early as they recorded a combined 32 points in the first half.
“We’re not looking to be successful in the non league, we’re looking to be successful the whole year, and for us to do that we need to come out the way we came out the last ten minutes of the half from the beginning of the game.”
“We have a lot of people on our team that can score,” McClean said. “Not everyone can be on every day and I guess today was my day.”
St. John’s continued to chip away at UMass until it tied the score at 32, and then it went on a 19-6 run of its own to close the half in dominating fashion.
“I thought Sky and Monique [made] pretty much every shot they took,” Barnes-Arico said. “Hopefully they can keep that going. They both are scorers and they have a scoring mentality and can both shoot the ball well.”
St. John’s maintained its strong level of play in the second half, increasing its lead by 20 at points of the game and never allowing UMass a chance to get back into the contest.
“When you have someone coming in that trying to earn minutes and prove themselves they don’t want to let up,” Barnes-Arico said, also noting the depth her team has this year without the injuries that plagued the team last season.
The Red Storm will next take its winning streak to Hartford, where it will try to extend the streak to five games and improve its record to 7-1.
