By Dylan Butler
It wasn't quite a flawless performance, but for St. John's women's basketball coach Darcel Estep, it was as close as her team has come this season.
The Red Storm appeared to have finally bought into Estep's system, which involved playing a smart, patient game on offense and a great zone defense. The team did both as St. John's defeated Villanova, 58-49, at Alumni Hall Saturday afternoon.
The win snaps the Red Storm's three-game losing streak and was the school's first over Villanova in 13 attempts, spanning eight years.
“We're a team right now that is not a consistent team,” Estep said. “We need to be. We came out today believing in ourselves and the system. I think this game was a prime example of what the system is all about.”
The Wildcats came into Saturday's game hot, winners of 10 of its last 14 games. During that span, Harry Perretta's team defeated two top 25 teams, with one-point wins over then-No. 9 Rutgers and No. 19 Boston College. The keys to those victories and others for Villanova this year have been the team's three-point-shooting prowess.
But against St. John's, the threes that were so vital in those wins were absent, especially in the second half. After Nova shot 4-9 from beyond the arc in the first half, the Red Storm implemented a 1-2-2 zone defense, which allowed the Wildcats very few open looks from outside. The result was 1-18 shooting from three-point range in the second half for the Wildcats.
“Our goal was to get a lot of three-point attempts and we got 27 of them, but the difference is real simple; if you put the ball in the basket everything looks good. If you don't put the ball in the basket, everything looks bad,” Perretta said. “We're not a good rebounding team, we're not a good pressing team. The only thing we really have to go to is the three-point shot.”
“We were able to cover all of the outside shooters and as they rotated through, we were able to bump and slow them down,” Estep said. “The defense, I thought, was tremendous and it came from a lot of heart.”
While she scored a team-high 21 points, St. John's (9-15, 4-10 Big East) held Villanova's best player, senior guard Jenea Skeeters, scoreless from outside (0-10).
“We got her 23 shots, which we wanted to try and do,” Perretta said. “They forced us out on the perimeter. They made us have to make extra passes.”
The Red Storm opened the game red-hot from the floor. Junior guard Latasha Thompson's rainbow three from the top of the key as the shot clock expired, capped a stretch of seven field goals in eight attempts.
A driving layup by Thompson, who scored a team-high 19 points, capped a 14-3 run that put St. John's ahead, 21-10, with 10:23 left in the first half.
Senior forward Tanya Mrdjen's layup extended the Red Storm's lead to 15, 28-13, with 6:13 to go in the first half.
But from there, St. John's went cold from the field as Villanova (14-10, 7-6 Big East) went on a 14-0 run before the Red Storm scored its next field goal with two seconds remaining in the half.
In the second half, the St. John's defense stepped up and the Wildcats went through two major scoreless draughts. Villanova went 7:10 without a field goal before Skeeters connected on a 14-foot baseline jumper to cut St. John's lead to 45-39 with 7:24 remaining.
Skeeters was the next person to score a field goal for the Wildcats, just over five minutes later as the Red Storm led, 49-43, with 2:15 to go.
“We played a lot of teams who have shooters and it was a big step for us to hold Villanova because that's their game, to come off screens, three-point shots,” Thompson said. “We came out more focused, we wanted to play more team-oriented basketball. It was a big step for us.”
The Red Storm, meanwhile, mixed it up on offense. Thompson and sophomore guard Giani Bowles (10 points) exploded through Villanova's zone for layups and Mrdjen (11 points) and senior guard Ana Pericic (eight points, seven rebounds) hit long-range jumpers. For Thompson, it was a chance at personal redemption after scoring just two points in a loss to UConn last Tuesday night.
“The other day against Connecticut I felt I let my team down, so to come in tonight and to score 21 points was a big step,” she said. “That was some big motivation for me.”
After heading to Norfolk, Va. to take on Old Dominion Tuesday night, the Red Storm return to action to face Big East powerhouse Rutgers at Alumni Hall Saturday at 2 p.m.
Notes: It was the first match-up of teacher vs. pupil at Alumni Hall. Estep was an assistant coach under Perretta from 1991-96 before moving on to the head job at Morgan State.
“Harry is very special to me, he's my mentor,” Estep said. “He taught me a lot, not just about the X's and O's, but about life. He knows what he has taught, I have received quite well.”
“She did a very good job,” Perretta said. “Her program is on its way up. She's teaching them a system which takes time. I would've liked to have played them in January because they're getting better every game. I'm very happy for her.”
