RJ Luis JR made a career high five 3-points and second-seeded St. John’s found his shooting team on his way to an 83-53 victory over No. 15 Frö Omaha in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday evening in Providence, RI
St. John’s (31-4) got his first tournament victory since 2000. Coach Rick Pitino and Big East Champs will meet John Calipari and No. 10 Frö Arkansas in the second round Saturday.
Luis led all scores with 22 points and added eight returns. He made 5 out of 8 attempts from deep as St. John’s-a 30.4 percent 3-point shooting team that entered the night-matched a season high with 14 3-points to counteract Omaha clogging lanes.
Simeon Wilcher got 13 points for the red storm. Kadary Richmond had 10 points, eight returns and six assists, while Zuby Ejiofor added 10 points, seven boards, four assists and three blocks.
JJ White published 15 points and five assists to lead Omaha (22-13), who played in his first Division in NCAA tournament after claiming the Summit League Championship.
Marquel Sutton got 11 for Mavericks, and Isaac Ondekane pulled down 10 of his 11 returns during the first half.
St. John’s missed his first five shots and let Omaha put out a 7-0 lead, which got an early timeout from Pitino. After Richmond got the red storm on the board, Luis received eight St. John’s points in a row, booked by a couple of 3 points.
Mavericks went forward 20-14 before St. John’s turned the tables. Wilcher cut the lead in half with a 3-pointer, which got a 16-2 run containing triples by Deivon Smith, Ruben Prey and another from Wilcher.
Omaha made six in a row to cut it to 30-28, but Vince Iwuchukwu came in for a bucket that turned into a three-point game with two seconds left, giving St. John’s en 33-28 half-time edge.
Luis kept the red storm 3-point party running by doing a 14 seconds into the second half. Teammate Aaron Scott splashed a trey, then Luis and Wilcher went on a two-on-one that ended in an alley-oop-can of Luis, which gave St. John’s Firm Control at 43-30.
Luis struck two more triples in hand St. John’s first 20-point lead with 13:14 to go. Critically, the red storm had assists on his first eight field goals for half while he made zero sales.
St. John’s held Mavericks to 7-of-34 field target shooting (20.6 percent) and surpassed them 31-19 during the second half.
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