Talk about a turn-around.

Coming off a brutal 98-41 loss at the hands of Connecticut – in which six Red Storm players were suspended due to unspecified team violations – St. John’s crushed Seton Hall last Wednesday, 73-45, in a must-win situation.

“[The players] know what we have to do and they read the paper and everything else,” head coach Kim Barnes-Arico said. “We try to take it one game at a time and I thought it was important for us to just play well.”

St. John’s was led in the first half by Monique McLean who recorded 11 points and four rebounds, and also notched her career 1,000th point, the sixteenth Johnny to do so.

“It means a lot [to score 1,000 points],” McLean said. “It’s exciting. I scored 1,000 in high school and to do it in college is a big deal.”

After leading at halftime by a score of 36-24, St. John’s continued to build upon its lead in the second half, going up by 20 points with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game.

“We haven’t played a good second half in a long time,” Barnes-Arico said. “All we’ve been working on in practice is the second half of games and having that mentality to focus and finish things off.”

St. John’s put the game away for good with just over four minutes remaining, going on a 10-3 run to take the lead 69-42.

Recee Mitchell had a huge game for St. John’s, recording a career-high 16 points and Kia Wright also chipped in with 10 points.

The Red Storm dominated in the paint, out rebounding Seton Hall 50-27 as Mitchell recorded nine boards in her 16 minutes.
“I’m progressing in all the areas of my game,” Mitchell said. “It’s confidence.”

-Christopher King