St. John's @ Xavier preview

St. John's at Xavier

Last Meeting ( Feb 17, 2020 ) Xavier 77, St. John's 74

Xavier's first eight games showcased plenty of offense but the last two games have seen the Musketeers encounter significant struggles scoring and now comes a matchup against a team expected to deploy a full-court press on defense.

Xavier is anticipating encountering heavy pressure and hopes it can shake off the two sub-par offensive showings Wednesday night when it hosts St. John's at Cincinnati.

"They're going to be relentless for 40 minutes," Xavier coach Travis Steele said. "They're going turn it on at the very beginning of the game all the way to the horn."

Xavier (8-2, 1-2 Big East) enters the contest averaging 80.2 points per game but through its first eight games it was averaging 84.1 points. After opening conference play with a 91-88 victory over Marquette, the Musketeers have done poorly against Creighton and Seton Hall.

In their last two games, the Musketeers have scored 61 and 68 points, respectively. They shot 35.3 percent in a five-point loss at Creighton on Dec. 23 and then trailed by 16 at halftime and missed 19 of 24 3-pointers in last Wednesday's 85-68 loss to Seton Hall.

Zach Freemantle scored 20 points after being held to a combined 16 points in the first two conference games but second-leading scorer Paul Scruggs was held to six points and has scored 17 points in the last two games after scoring 29 against Marquette.

St. John's (6-4, 1-3) is playing its first game since halting a three-game losing streak with a 94-83 win over Georgetown on Dec. 20. The Red Storm had their last scheduled game against DePaul postponed on Saturday due to a COVID-19 issue, marking the seventh game St. John's had canceled or postponed so far.

Before their layoff, the Red Storm got 26 points from Greg Williams Jr. and 20 from Julian Champagnie, who is second in the Big East in scoring at 20.3 points per game.

Despite often using a pressing defense, St. John's struggles defensively at times. The Red Storm enter Wednesday with the league's top scoring offense (82.6 points) but the team is allowing the second-most points (80.3) in the 11-team Big East.

"More than anything, I'm looking for consistency in how we play and our guys play," St. John's coach Mike Anderson said to the New York Post last week "I still believe we got to get better defensively for 40 minutes. We're good for 20, 25 minutes. You're not just going to outscore people."

Xavier has won 11 straight over St. John's and leads the all-time series 13-3.

--Field Level Media