(Sports Network) -- The St. John's Red Storm and the UCLA Bruins take a break from their respective league slates to do battle in Los Angeles this afternoon.
Back-to-back wins have enabled St. John's to improve to 13-8 overall and 5-5 in Big East Conference action. The Red Storm shocked Duke last Sunday with a 15-point blowout victory, and they managed to edge Rutgers on Wednesday in a 58-56 final. Today, the goal will be to improve a 2-5 record in true road games.
UCLA has won two straight games and six of its last seven to improve to 15-7 overall and 7-3 in Pac-10 Conference action. The Bruins defeated rival USC on Wednesday by a 64-50 final to move to 11-2 in home games this season.
St. John's owns a 6-3 series lead over UCLA, and the Red Storm is 3-0 at Pauley Pavilion, impressive to say the least.
Through 21 games, St. John's is scoring 69.4 ppg while allowing 66.8 ppg to opponents. The Red Storm have three double-digit scorers in the fold, and Dwight Hardy is tops with 15.0 ppg. Justin Brownlee checks in with 13.3 ppg, and D.J. Kennedy provides 10.3 ppg and 5.6 rpg. Against Rutgers on Wednesday, Hardy scored 15 points to pace the Red Storm, while Paris Horne and Justin Burrell managed 12 points apiece. Kennedy only managed three points in that affair, and the team shot just 36.7 percent from the field, including 2-of-11 from three-point range. Fortunately, the Red Storm were able to overcome that inefficiency by forcing 23 turnovers and earning a 20-9 edge in points from the foul line.
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