The St. John’s Women’s Basketball team ended their regular season on Feb. 27 with a win over Marquette and will now begin Big East Tournament play at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut on Mar. 9. After an impressive season last year, how did the team fare this season overall?
With an appearance in the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time in seven years, expectations were high coming into the 2023-2024 season.
The Johnnies came out the gates firing with an emphatic 81-44 win in the season opener against Long Island University on Nov. 6. Captains Unique Drake and Jillian Archer both had impressive performances, setting the tone for the rest of their campaigns.
Back-to-back losses followed but a win against Manhattan on Nov. 19 seemed to steady the ship as the team prepared for the Discover Puerto Rico tournament.
The Johnnies entered the tournament with a 2-2 record and left 2-5 after this disastrous turn. Shooting woes plagued the team’s stint in Puerto Rico, highlighted by a 61-48 loss to the University of Central Florida which saw the team shoot 31.8% from the field.
In order to turn the season around, head coach Joe Tartamella needed his squad to bounce back quickly which is exactly what happened. The Johnnies won five out of their next six games, improving to 7-6. The most important game of this stretch was a 51-46 victory against Villanova on Dec. 16 in the first Big East matchup of the season held at Madison Square Garden.
After this remarkable turn around, the Red Storm had their work cut out facing two ranked opponents back to back. They split both games, losing to No. 21 Creighton on Dec. 30 but beating No. 19 Marquette on Jan. 3 dramatically by one point.
Following this test, they went on another run winning six of their next eight games. One of the most important wins of the season came in a double overtime victory against DePaul in which Drake set a St. John’s record for points scored in a single game. Drake scored a whopping 36 points and had six three-pointers in this historic performance.
With only seven games remaining in the season and sitting at a 14-9 record, the Johnnies looked to finish strong with formidable opponents such as the No. 11 ranked Uconn Huskies standing in their way.
After dropping two consecutive games to Uconn and Butler, the Johnnies limped to the finish line losing four of their final seven games.
The Red Storm finished the season 17-13, while going 11-7 in conference games tying Villanova and Marquette for the No. 3 seed in the Big East Tournament. Perhaps the most staggering statistic was the home and away splits; the Johnnies could not seem to lose at home as they went 11-3 in Carnesecca Arena while only going 6-7 in away games.
The best performers of the season were Drake and Archer: Drake’s 18 points per game was enough to earn her a unanimous place on the First Team All-Big East and a “Women’s College Basketball All-Star Game Watch List ” honor. Archer was an honorable mention on the All-Big East teams as well, averaging 11 points and eight rebounds per game this season. Senior guard Ber’Nyah Mayo had a noteworthy season as well, leading the team with 3.5 assists per game, two steals and scoring 12 points as well.
Drake, Archer and Mayo will attempt to keep the Johnnies season alive in the Big East Tournament against the winner of Xavier vs. Georgetown on Mar. 9.
