St. John’s finding groove from 3-point land after early struggles

NASSAU, Bahamas — The biggest surprise through two-thirds of St. John’s trip to The Bahamas has been the Johnnies’ 3-point shooting.

A perceived weakness entering the season was a strength in the double-overtime loss to No. 13 Baylor and rout of Virginia.

No. 22 St. John’s is 24-for-48 from distance, and is now shooting a robust 39.3 percent from deep in six games this year.

The 24 attempts in the two games in the Baha Mar Hoops Championship were up from the Red Storm’s 21.7 average over the first four contests.

“We put in the work behind closed doors. We shoot 3’s every day. As you can see right now, after practice there’s multiple people working on their 3’s,” said senior wing Aaron Scott, who is shooting 40 percent from distance on the season. “Really, I don’t think anybody can guard us one-on-one. We got Kadary [Richmond], Deivon [Smith], RJ [Luis], Simeon [Wilcher]. They all beat their defenders one-on-one and find open people like me and Brady [Dunlap], spot-up, knockdown shooters. We’re just waiting for the ball. We know they’re going to find us and we know they’re going to beat their man one-on-one and the other team will have to help off of us.”

In St. John’s (5-1) first four games at Carnesecca Arena and the Garden, it averaged 7.2 made 3-pointers.

In this tournament, the Red Storm have hit 12 per game.

Maybe the Johnnies should play more games in a ballroom like this one.

After games on back-to-back nights, you might assume that coach Rick Pitino would give his players a breather.

Well, think again.

After watching the Georgia-Marquette game together on Saturday ahead of the matchup with the SEC school on Sunday, Pitino put his players through a two-hour practice.

“I was kind of surprised,” Richmond said. “We got after it, though. I feel good. No walk-throughs really [here].”

Dunlap (hip) practiced on Saturday.

The hope is he will be available Sunday.

He was held out of Friday’s win over Virginia.