St. John's women's basketball preview: Skye Owen is limit

St. John’s is trying to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three seasons and the key may lie in the backcourt.

The Red Storm (16-15 in 2024-25) and picked in the preseason coaches poll to finish sixth) returns guard Skye Owen, who along with center Kylie Lavelle, is their top returning scorer from last season at 7.7 points per game. But coach Joe Tartamella has a vision for turning Owen into a much more productive scorer.

The Storm has brought in 5-10 transfer Shaulana Wagner, who ranked fourth in assists last season with 6.7 per game, at Troy. If she cracks the starting lineup – which she might – Owen could play off the ball and become more of a scorer. Owen shot 28% on three-pointer last season.

“(Wagner) is very important for us,” Storm coach Joe Tartamella said. “We envision her as our main facilitator, and distributor. She’s tough and we want her to be the teeth of our team.”

Wagner grew up in Detroit and played football against boys through her freshman year in high school.

“I was never really into the girly stuff,” Wagner said at St. John’s Media Day on campus. “Like the cheer and stuff, I tried it and) didn’t really like it. So in going to the other side, with the competitiveness? I liked that. And there was always beating the boys.”

Tartamella said Owen is going to need to adjust to not having the ball in her hads all the time, but he wants more offensive production from her.

“She can shoot it,” he said. “We want her to shoot it.”

“With Wagner, there is a certain toughness we need,” he added. “She’s played four years (of college basketball) already and that experience is invaluable.”

There is more to the Storm than what is developing in the starting backcourt, The 6-2 Lavelle is a potential inside force. The 6-foot Sa’Maya Wyatt, a transfer from Austin Peay, was the Atlantic Sun Conference Freshman of the Year after averaging 12.8 points on 57% shooting.

And there is 5-10 Beautiful Waheed, a transfer who was a junior college second team all American after averaging 14.0 points and returning 5-7 guard/forward Jailah Donald, who averaged 6.1 points.

St. John’s (16-15, 5-13 Big East) lost eight games by a total of 12 points a year ago. Tartamella envisions Owen becoming the difference-maker.

“She's going to have to make shots that are going to matter in crunch time,” Tartamella said. “we were missing that last year in big moments, (especially) when you look at the margin of losses that we've had. I want her to be the leader and the one to shoot the big shots.”

But Owen is going to need to be versatile. When Wagner isn’t on the floor, despite Tartamella’s need for her to score, she will have to involve others.

But there is going to be an adjustment period as Wagner takes on the main ballhandling role and Owen shifts to being an off-the-ball scorer.

“Wagner is a truer sense of a point guard, in terms of her trying to facilitate more than maybe score,” Tartamella said. “This gives Skye the ability to do a little bit more with her speed. Wagner does a really good job of trying to set people up. Skye has to understand her role is changing and we need her points.”

Said Owen: “I am about the team and I’ll play whatever role they need. If that’s off the ball, so be it.”

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

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.