St. John's Dylan Darling comes off bench, has best scoring game of season in Big East opener
St. John’s Dylan Darling going for a layup during the second half against DePaul’s NJ Benson at Carnesecca Arena in Queens on Tuesday. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Dylan Darling’s season took a second hairpin turn on Tuesday night as 22nd-ranked St. John’s began its Big East title defense in the conference opener against DePaul at Carnesecca Arena. That change of direction, along with the continuing improvement on the defensive end, made the difference as the Red Storm kept the Blue Demons at arm’s length in a 79-66 victory before a sellout crowd of 6,250.
Darling’s effort, savvy playmaking and defense were lauded as essential when he held the role of starting point guard early in the season. Then, before Saturday’s win over Iona, coach Rick Pitino replaced him with Ian Jackson in the starting lineup. When the Storm beat the Gaels, Darling played just eight minutes and Pitino said afterward that his jump shot needed major mechanical adjustments.
Two days of practice later, Darling played arguably his best game of the season. He had a season-high 17 points, six rebounds and two assists against DePaul as the Red Storm (7-3) earned their third straight victory.
They will take that momentum into Saturday’s critical matchup with Kentucky in Atlanta where they can finally get a high-profile non-conference win after dropping all three of their matchups against other nationally ranked foes.
The Idaho State transfer came into the game brimming with confidence and made his first two three-point attempts and things went from there. In the second half, he played point guard for 14 minutes and scored 11 of his points.
“[Pitino] just told me to play with confidence because he has confidence in me,” Darling said. “My teammates do, so why shouldn’t I? And then he also just told me to put arc on my jump shot so, for the past two days, I’ve been emphasizing putting arc on my jump shot, and I got some to fall tonight.”
For all the other things that he’d done well, Darling was just 1-for-15 on three-point attempts before Tuesday.
“I was just really surprised that a veteran ballplayer like that would lose his confidence like that — really surprised,” Pitino said. “I told him today, ‘You’re so much more valuable than scoring the basketball. You [handle through] pressure. You see the court. You’re a pest defensively. You get to the floor for loose balls. So you’ve got to be the toughest guy — that makes people better. And if you score, you score. But there’s so much more to you than just scoring.’”
Joson Sanon had a career-best 15 points and added nine rebounds and Jackson finished with 10 points in 14 minutes but played just five in the second half as Pitino rode Darling’s hot hand.
Zuby Ejiofor had nine points, seven rebounds, four blocked shots and three assists, but he and Bryce Hopkins totaled just eight points in the second half.
The Storm got through though by holding the Blue Demons to 11 points below their average on 39% shooting and by turning 12 DePaul turnovers into 15 points.
Kaleb Banks had 19 points and CJ Gunn had 15 points for DePaul (8-4).
“There’s certain nights you may not have it, but your defense has got to win it for you — and it did,” Pitino said.
As important as this looming game with Kentucky is, a win over DePaul was very important. The Demons played one of the five easiest non-conference schedules in the nation and brought a NET ranking of 147 into the game. A Quad 3 loss for St. John’s can seriously damage a program’s NCAA Tournament positioning.
Darling and the Storm’s second unit led the team through an 18-3 run in the first half as it built an 18-point lead before carrying a 39-28 advantage into halftime. DePaul didn’t fade away in the second half. It was within 47-40 with 13:48 left in the game and within 66-56 on an RJ Smith jumper with 5:55 left to play.
Pitino suggested before the season dawned that his starting lineup could change many times during the season. And it’s difficult to project where he will go at point guard for Saturday’s matchup with the Wildcats in the CBS Sports Classic.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
