The Villanova Wildcats and the St. John’s Red Storm meet Friday in college basketball action from Madison Square Garden. Villanova is 9-10 on the year so far. The Wildcats beat Georgetown in their last game. As for St. John’s, they’re 13-6 overall following a win over UConn on Sunday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Villanova Wildcats
The Wildcats started out the year on a 7-7 run with wins over La Salle, Delaware State, Oklahoma, Penn, Boston College, Saint Joseph’s and St. John’s. Villanova is 2-5 since then with wins over Georgetown twice.
In the Monday rematch versus Georgetown, the Wildcats hit a 37-33 run in the first half. Villanova scored another 40 points from there and won it 77-73. Caleb Daniels led the team on 16 points, and Brandon Slater added 15 points.
St. John’s Red Storm
Over on the St. John’s side, they were 11-3 in their first 14 games with losses to only Iowa State, Villanova and Xavier. The Red Storm are 2-3 since then with losses to Seton Hall, Marquette and Providence.
Back on Sunday versus UConn, St. John’s went into halftime tied 38-38. The Red Storm hit a 47-36 run in the second half and took the victory 85-74. Joel Soriano doubled up with 19 points and 13 rebounds in the win.
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I’ll probably stick with St. John’s here. The Red Storm are coming off an impressive win over a fading UConn team, shooting 51.7 percent from the field. There are a couple things to work on, however; namely the 2-of-13 (15.4 percent) 3-point shooting and the 40-31 rebounding deficit. Still, St. John’s is cooking right now, and they’ve scored 77 or more points in four straight. As for Villanova, they’ve hit 71 or more points in four of their last five games and should score pretty well here also. This will be an interesting matchup but I like St. John’s better on the potential cover.