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CHICAGO — Another key St. John’s player is now battling an injury.
Just when Deivon Smith recovered from the bruised right shoulder that bothered him for a month, leading scorer RJ Luis suffered a groin injury.
The Big East Player of the Year candidate missed his first game of the year in Wednesday night’s 82-58 blasting of DePaul at Wintrust Arena.
“I would say RJ is probably going to miss Connecticut with a pulled groin,” coach Rick Pitino said of Sunday’s game at the Garden. “This is new for RJ. But RJ is a baller, he wants to play. He has never had a pulled groin before. They can be difficult.”
Luis suffered the injury a few days ago. Pitino doesn’t expect to practice ahead of Sunday, but stopped short of ruling Luis out.
“I’d be guessing. I haven’t been right yet,” he joked. “Deivon [Smith] I thought would be out two to three weeks.”
Sadiku Ibine Ayo is always the first man off the bench to cheer on his teammates. Wednesday night was a role reversal.
The junior reserve, starting in place of Luis, got a chance to play big minutes, and he took advantage, scoring a career-high 15 points and adding five rebounds and two assists.
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He entered the night with 20 points on the season.
“He’s always happy for us, so today was our turn to be happy for him,” close friend Kadary Richmond said. “He stays prepared, he’s always working, he never complains. I’m happy to see him have a game like this.”
Said Ibine Ayo: “It’s amazing. Coach [Pitino] is always hard on me all the time. I think it pays off.”
