RJ Luis Jr. made a career-high five 3-pointers and second-seeded St. John’s found its shooting stroke en route to an 83-53 victory over No. 15 seed Omaha in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night in Providence, R.I.
St. John’s (31-4) earned its first tournament win since 2000. Coach Rick Pitino and the Big East champs will face John Calipari and No. 10 seed Arkansas in the second round Saturday.
Luis led all scorers with 22 points and added eight rebounds. He made 5 of 8 attempts from deep as St. John’s — a 30.4 percent 3-point shooting team entering the night — matched a season high with 14 3-pointers to counter Omaha clogging the lanes.
“I didn’t know we hit 14 threes,” Luis said. “We’re not bad shooters, it’s just about moving the ball and getting open looks and shots and shooting the ball with confidence. Definitely if we’re able to keep shooting the threes, it’s going to be pretty interesting going down and we have to pick up our defense and get back to that, which is our identity.”
Simeon Wilcher scored 13 points for the Red Storm. Kadary Richmond had 10 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Zuby Ejiofor added 10 points, seven boards, four assists and three blocks.
JJ White posted 15 points and five assists to lead Omaha (22-13), which was playing in its first Division I NCAA Tournament after claiming the Summit League championship.
Marquel Sutton scored 11 for the Mavericks, and Isaac Ondekane pulled down 10 of his 11 rebounds in the first half.
St. John’s missed its first five shots and let Omaha stake out a 7-0 lead, prompting an early timeout from Pitino. After Richmond got the Red Storm on the board, Luis scored eight St. John’s points in a row, bookended by a pair of 3-pointers.
“I thought we got off to a great start, 7-0,” Omaha coach Chris Crutchfield said. “Gave our guys some energy and confidence that we could play with a good team like St. John’s. As the game wore on, the physicality of that team just wore us down. … We didn’t make any shots tonight, but great effort by our guys. ”
The Mavericks moved ahead 20-14 before St. John’s turned the tables. Wilcher cut the lead in half with a 3-pointer, prompting a 16-2 run that featured triples by Deivon Smith, Ruben Prey and another from Wilcher.
Omaha scored six in a row to cut it to 30-28, but Vince Iwuchukwu got inside for a bucket that turned into a three-point play with two seconds left, giving St. John’s a 33-28 halftime edge.
Luis kept the Red Storm 3-point party going by making one 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 dunk by Luis, giving St. John’s firm control at 43-30.
Luis knocked down another two triples to hand St. John’s its first 20-point lead with 13:14 to go. Critically, the Red Storm had assists on their first eight made field goals of the half while committing zero turnovers.
St. John’s held the Mavericks to 7-of-34 field-goal shooting (20.6 percent) and outrebounded them 31-19 in the second half.
“The one thing about our team all season long, we have never panicked about either being down or being up by a few,” Pitino said. “I think that the players were correct. I think they were a little tight. This is all new to them. … It’s first-time experience for them. They will learn from this night, get a lot better but it’s been a great season for us.”
–Field Level Media
