The No. 4 ranked Duke Blue Devils suffered a shocking loss to a St. John’s team that had 13 losses coming into the game. Playing in New York City at Madison Square Garden, the Red Storm pulled off a tightly contested win 77-81 on Saturday (Feb. 3).
St. John’s was led by sophomore point guard Shamorie Ponds, who dropped 33 points in 40 minutes of play while adding 7 rebounds. Forwards Bashir Ahmed and Tariq Owens added 19 and 17 points respectively. Duke’s star player Grayson Allen finished with only 7 points while Gary Trent Jr. and Marvin Bagley III added 22 and 19 points. Duke’s head coach Mike Krzyzewski spoke on his teams performance, adding a colorful word to describe the play of his team.
We didn’t play basketball the first 32 minutes worthy of our program,” Krzyzewski said. “It was disgusting, really.”
Despite his teams “disgusting performance,” Coach K also praised Ponds’ 33 point display at the Madison Square Garden.
“Ponds was terrific. But also they played with an enthusiasm and a togetherness that I’m sure they liked.”
Duke drops to 19-4, good for third place behind the University of Virginia and Clemson University in the ACC while the St. John’s move to 11-13. Although St. John’s doesn’t appear to have a lot going for them this year with a sub .500 record, this win could be some motivation to take into the rest of the season as they compete in the always tough Big East Conference.
“It was a big win, we needed it bad,” said three year Red Storm head coach Chris Mullin. “Perseverance is what it’s all about.”
“It was a big win, we needed it so bad. Perseverance is what it’s all about.”- Chris Mullin on @StJohnsBBall win over Duke pic.twitter.com/MBLZbXmScF
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 3, 2018
The Red Storm didn’t win a game in January, but this huge win over the Blue Devils could be the spark needed before conference tournament play begin in March.
Coach K and his Blue Devils team face their cross-town rivals the North Carolina Tarheels on Thursday (Feb. 8). As for St. John’s, they’re hoping to take this energy into their next game against the Big East leaders, the Villanova Wildcats. The Wildcats are currently on an 8 game winning streak.
