St. John's @ DePaul preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 12, 2019 ) DePaul 79, St. John's 71

St. John's hopeful return to the NCAA Tournament after a three-year absence was sidetracked by Thursday's 84-73 home loss to a middling Xavier team. The Red Storm can't afford to slip up on the road Sunday at league-worst DePaul and likely will need a win in the season finale at Xavier and another in the Big East tournament to secure a nod to the Big Dance.

St. John's shot 47.5 percent from the floor, including 11-of-26 beyond the arc, with LJ Figueroa scoring 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting but allowed the Musketeers to shoot 51 percent and win the battle of the boards 38-22. “I am not worried at all,” coach Chris Mullin told reporters about the upcoming stretch. “Prepare and go play. ... We know what we have to do, we just have to do it." DePaul, seeking its first winning season since 2006-07, fell back to .500 with its fourth straight loss Wednesday, 82-73 at Georgetown, and the Blue Demons have dropped seven of their last nine and four in a row after a 3-3 Big East start. The only week St. John's made the national rankings (No. 23), DePaul shocked the Red Storm 79-71 on the road on Jan. 12 as Femi Olujobi exploded for 27 points and eight rebounds, while Paul Reed chipped in 18 points and 10 boards to offset a combined 43 points by Figueroa and Justin Simon - a game that St. John's star guard Shamorie Ponds missed due to injury.

TV: Noon ET, Fox Sports 1

ABOUT ST. JOHN'S (20-9, 8-8 Big East): Figueroa (14.5 points, 6.3 rebounds), a 6-6 sophomore transfer from Odessa (Tex.) College where he was a NJCAA Division 1 First Team All-American (21.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists), had shot just 16-of-46 in his previous three games but is shooting a team-best 51.1 percent from the floor this season and 37.7 percent beyond the arc with 43 makes. Ponds (19.5 points, 5.2 assists, 4.4 rebounds), who scored 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting against Seton Hall after a three-game skid in which he averaged 9.7 points on 8-of-35 shooting, struggled again against Xavier with 13 points on 5-of-16 shooting. Fellow junior guard Mustapha Heron (15.4 points, 4.9 rebounds) has missed three of the last six games with a sore right knee, including the Xavier contest.

ABOUT DEPAUL (13-13, 5-10): Senior Max Strus (17.6 points, 6.2 rebounds) scored 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting and added two blocks, while Reed (11.4, 8.2) added 16 points and 12 boards against the Hoyas. Senior guard Eli Cain (12.6 points, 3.5 assists) scored 14 points in the loss to become the 12th player in program history with 1,500 career points. Senior forward Olujobi, who had his streak of 13 straight double-digit scoring games snapped (seven points), has had a great conference season, averaging 14.9 points on 61.1 percent shooting and has drained 10-of-18 beyond the arc while averaging 4.9 rebounds in 25.1 minutes.

TIP-INS

1. The 6-9 Olujobi played sparingly his first two years at Oakland (76 points in 56 games), transferred to North Carolina A&T for one season (16.3 points, 7.7 rebounds) and is playing his grad transfer season with the Blue Demons.

2. The Red Storm have three outstanding conference wins (a sweep of No. 9 Marquette and Feb. 13 over Villanova), but they also were beaten twice in 12 days by a struggling Providence team prior to the Xavier loss.

3. Ponds (1,766) moved into seventh place on the program's all-time scoring list and needs 45 points to pass Zendon Hamilton (1994-98).

PREDICTION: DePaul 77, St. John's 72