Hard work always pays off, no one needs to tell this to Julian Champagnie.
Wednesday night, the Brooklyn native, and junior, delivered a career effort with 34 points and 16 rebounds to lead St. John’s to an 89-84 home win over DePaul. For the Red Storm, it was their Big East opener, after four postponements to open their conference schedule.
St. John’s head coach Mike Anderson said afterwards his team hadn’t practiced in “18,19 days”, due to health and safety protocols. Champagnie last played December 12 after which he tested positive for COVID-19.
And that’s what made Wednesday night’s performance that much more impressive — because DePaul came into Queens ready for a battle.
But when the Blue Demons punched, Champagnie and the Red Storm made sure to hit back.
“It was kind of like he refused to let us go down,” Anderson said afterwards. “Nothing surprises me with this kid because he’s one of the hardest-working kids [I’ve coached]. I’ve had some pretty good kids who worked hard: Joe Johnson, who played for us at Arkansas, Bobby Portis. He’s in that mold in terms of putting time in on his game.”
As a team, St. John’s shot 18-of-31 (58.1%) from the floor in the second half. On the evening, the Johnnies converted on 10 of their 18 attempts from beyond the arc and blocked a season-high 11 shots.
Ultimately, DePaul had no answer for Champagnie, on either side of the ball. Moreover, when you factor in 16 turnovers from DePaul, thanks to some suffocating defense from the Red Storm, it was too much for the Blue Demons.
We’ll continue to talk often this season of teams having to clear hurdles caused by surging COVID-19 numbers, there’s just no avoiding it. Professional and collegiate sports are doing their best to work through unprecedented times.
Champagnie wowed everyone watching his performance after such a long layoff. It wasn’t, however, a surprise to his head coach.
