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St. John’s smashes Syracuse in Carrier Dome

Richard Freudenberg, Tarig Owens

St. John’s Richard Freudenberg, left, and teammate Tarig Owens, center, and others celebrate on the St. John’s bench late in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Syracuse in Syracuse, N.Y., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. St. John’s won 93-60. (AP Photo/Nick Lisi)

AP

An old Big East matchup ended with an old-fashioned beatdown.

St. John’s went into the Carrier Dome and defeated Syracuse, 93-60, on Wednesday night.

Now that you’ve done a double-take, here it is for a third time: Yes, St. John’s, which has losses to Delaware State, Old Dominion, and LIU-Brooklyn to its name, won by 33 points on Jim Boeheim’s homecourt.

Whoa, boy.

The Red Storm shot 53.1 percent overall and made 12 of 29 (41.4 percent) from 3-point range while holding the Orange to 32.8 percent shooting from the floor and 4 of 24 (16.7 percent) from distance. That disparity in percentages is a sure-fire way for there to be a monster disparity on the scoreboard.

Really, it was a lot about 3-point shooting. Chris Mullin’s St. John’s teams is one of the best in the country from long range at 41 percent, and they shoot a ton of them. That held serve Wednesday. The Orange aren’t far behind at 39.4 percent, and they too are reliant and making shots from beyond the arc. That obviously didn’t happen this night.

The Big East reunion tour hasn’t been kind to Syracuse this season as they also dropped games to UConn and Georgetown, putting them at 0-3 against their former familiar foes this season.

For St. John’s, it’ll be interesting if this is a sign of life after a rough non-conference schedule or more of a fluke. Don’t forget last season when the Red Storm knocked off the Orange at home in similar surprising fashion, but proceeded to lose to Incarnate Word and NJIT in the first two of 16-straight losses and a 1-17 Big East season. After a difficult season-and-a-half to start Mullin’s tenure, St. John’s has to be hoping this represent some sort of turning point.