St. John's faces Providence after Soriano's 20-point game

Providence Friars (11-4, 2-2 Big East) at St. John's Red Storm (11-4, 3-1 Big East)

New York; Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: St. John's hosts the Providence Friars after Joel Soriano scored 20 points in St. John's 81-71 victory against the Villanova Wildcats.

The Red Storm have gone 7-1 in home games. St. John's ranks fifth in the Big East with 34.3 points per game in the paint led by Soriano averaging 10.3.

The Friars have gone 2-2 against Big East opponents. Providence ranks ninth in the Big East shooting 32.7% from 3-point range.

St. John's scores 79.8 points, 15.7 more per game than the 64.1 Providence allows. Providence averages 8.0 made 3-pointers per game this season, 1.5 more made shots on average than the 6.5 per game St. John's gives up.

The matchup Wednesday is the first meeting of the season for the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Soriano is scoring 17.3 points per game and averaging 10.3 rebounds for the Red Storm.

Devin Carter is scoring 17.0 points per game with 8.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists for the Friars.

LAST 10 GAMES: Red Storm: 8-2, averaging 80.9 points, 41.5 rebounds, 16.6 assists, 7.3 steals and 5.3 blocks per game while shooting 45.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 66.4 points per game.

Friars: 7-3, averaging 72.5 points, 37.1 rebounds, 14.5 assists, 5.9 steals and 4.6 blocks per game while shooting 45.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 63.7 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.