OMAHA, Neb. — Lefteris Liotopoulos is suddenly a key piece for St. John’s.
A rarely used reserve much of the season, the 6-foot-4 sharpshooter from Greece has received double-digit minutes in three consecutive games, highlighted by his career-best performance Saturday in the Johnnies’ 90-73 rout of Creighton.
Liotopoulos scored 17 points and hit five 3-pointers in 29 minutes. He added four rebounds and two assists. In Tuesday’s win over Butler, he sparked St. John’s with 10 first-half points.
“Every time he shoots it, I feel like it’s going in,” Pitino said. “He gets it off quicker than anybody and he’s also getting better at driving the basketball.”
In that game, Pitino joked with Liotopoulos that if he didn’t stop getting beat defensively, he would send him back to Greece.
He was better on that end against Creighton.
“In the beginning, I thought I might be going home,” Liotopoulos said with a smile, recalling the conversation.
Added Pitino: “Lefty wants to play as much as anybody and he doesn’t complain, and he knows where he has to get better. He knows how much confidence I have in him, and he’s playing great right now.”
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Dylan Darling responded to his benching against Butler with a strong effort. The Idaho State transfer had 11 points in 19 minutes off the bench.
St. John’s was plus-21 with Darling on the floor.
Pitino said he didn’t play Darling in the previous game because he wanted more size on the floor to neutralize Butler’s offensive rebounding prowess.
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“There’s just no time to sulk, no time to sulk or complain about it,” Darling said. “I realized I wasn’t effective at all in the Providence game. I understand why I didn’t play. I tried to come back at practice, try to get better and practice being aggressive.”
St. John’s picked up its second ever win here Saturday to improve to 2-13. The other win came Jan. 30, 2019. … St. John’s is 4-1 in league play for the third straight season.
