Deivon Smith was understandably rusty in his return.
The senior level guard missed 9 of his 10 photographs in 28 minutes off the bench in St. John’s 68-66 win over Windfall on the Backyard Saturday afternoon.
Smith had missed three of the earlier 4 video games with a bruised proper shoulder.
He gave the impression to be favoring it initially, however wasn’t as involved about it as the sport went on.
“I feel he’s actually rusty. He had two practices the place he didn’t shoot it properly, however it’s to be anticipated,” coach Rick Pitino stated after St. John’s gained its eighth straight recreation and accomplished a season sweep of Windfall. “He’s a professional. He’ll come again, he listens, he’ll do the proper issues.”
Smith did have six assists, three rebounds and three steals, so he contributed in different methods past scoring.
At one level late within the first half, he appeared to get hit arduous on the shoulder on a display screen and winced.
However he performed by means of the ache and sank a 3-pointer, his lone made discipline purpose.
From then on, Smith appeared extra like himself.
The Utah switch initially suffered the damage within the first half of a Jan. 11 win over Villanova.
He tried to return per week later in opposition to Seton Corridor however wasn’t proper.
The hope is he’s again for good now.
The recreation featured a prolonged delay initially as a consequence of issues with the shot clock.
After the primary three possessions, play was stopped for a number of minutes because the officers and scorer’s desk received the problems corrected.
Saturday’s crowd of 19,196 was a season excessive for St. John’s and the second most within the Pitino period after final 12 months’s house recreation in opposition to Connecticut.
St. John’s accomplished its first season sweep of Windfall since 2021.
The Johnnies have gained double-digit league video games in consecutive seasons for the primary time since 2013-15, when Steve Lavin was the coach.