Never in Doubt: St. John's 55, Seton Hall 25

South Orange, NJ - St. John's played the early aggressor and never really looked back. The Red Storm scored a 55-25 victory over Seton Hall at Walsh Gym on Saturday.

The first Seton Hall points were scored by Nicosia Henry on a transition layup at 11:11 with St. John's leading 18-0. It was that type of afternoon for the Hall.

Pre-game efficiency for traditional points per possession and 'plays'.

St. John's came in playing at a 68 possession pace while Seton Hall, a bit more deliberate at 64.

	Offensive Efficiency	Defensive Efficiency
St. John’s	89	82
Seton Hall	81	109

A look at plays. They are calculated without subtracting offensive rebounds. Simply, an offensive board constitutes a brand new play.

	Offensive Efficiency	Defensive Efficiency
St. John’s	.75	.70
Seton Hall	.67	.90

Defense.

Some of the offensive woes of Seton Hall can be predicated on their just plain misfiring. Give St. John's and their good solid man to man credit however. There is a reason you misfire and a number of possessions saw the Pirates work deep into the shot clock before getting an attempt off.

The halftime score was 26-12 in St. John's' favor. Intermission recount saw a 30 possession affair. To no surprise defense ruled. The offensive efficiency:

St. John ‘s 87

Seton Hall 40

An improvement on the defensive end for the Pirates but...you need some offense. The 40 did not even represent half Seton Hall's Offensive efficiency average in Big East play. A 40 OE is hard to comprehend. It is easier to understand when your eFG is 20% and turnover rate is 37%.

Interestingly no team knocked down a three the opening twenty minutes. Seton Hall scored five field goals, St. John's ten. Nine of the Red Storm FGM were in the paint. The other that dying breed known as the mid-range jumper which happened to be a 15 footer to the left of the free throw line.

Second half saw more of the same as St. John's scored six points over their initial half dozen possessions in the first four minutes. At 16 to go, up 32-12 Kim Barnes Arico's club was in the driver's seat.

Throughout the second half, nothing much changed.

The winless (in Big east) Anne Donovan's Pirates were to drop to 0-10 (7-17 overall). They scored 13 second half points. Jasmine Crew, Seton Hall's top scorer did lead her team with 14 points. Crew, however, was hounded by the Red Storm guards and wound up shooting 4 of 18 from the field. Off the bench three point specials Terry Green, also had a St. John's player closely defending each of her 22 minutes. Green scored two points shooting 1 of 6 (0-2 beyond the arc). Seton Hall, in fact, shot 0 for 11 beyond the arc. From two point range things were not much better , 9 of 39 (24%). Shenneika Smith of St. John's (15-8, 7-3 Big East) paced all scorers with 15 points, while Da'Shena Stevens added 14.

Among the Four Factors, point to the Hall's 18% eFG mark and 31% TO rate as major contributors to a tough afternoon. Again, opposing defense has a lot to do with those marks.

We discussed plays earlier so here are there final totals:

	Plays	PPP
St. John's	68	.81
Seton Hall	75	.33

The final efficiency numbers saw the following:

Possessions: St. John's 57 Seton Hall 58

Offensive efficiency: St. John's 97 Seton Hall 43

St. John's showed a 46% eFG percentage and a 21% TO rate. Obviously their offense, and efficiency shows, was not running on all cylinders. With a defense as they had it hardly mattered.

A few final notes...

An early arrival allowed yours truly to speak with two of the officials arriving together, Joanne Aldrich and Denise Brooks. The latter, I had the pleasure of working with about ten years ago at an officiating camp at St. Peter's College. I was just learning three man mechanics and working two quarters on Denise's crew, well, she made me look good. Denise is a great official and one could see on that summer day that she was headed for big things. She's also a good officiating friend.

Pre-game spoke a bit with Veronica Mullen, a St. John's Director of Basketball Operations. We discussed the two teams and made mention of my girls game officiated earlier that morning. In that game one team had a single play, off a pick and roll. Mullen agreed that is good coaching. Keep the set(s) basic and to a minimum on that level and concentrate on fundamentals. The latter could be used a basketball lifetime.

At the half, Kristin Duffy, the excellent media relations director for St. John's women asked if I was having flashbacks to that 5-4 game of last week.

Truthfully, it crossed my mind. Those 5-4 games do not occur often nor do they exit the 'memory bank'.