By R.L. Bynum

If the St. John’s 66–64 First Four victory Thursday night over Purdue is any indication, Carolina will have to play excellent perimeter defense to beat the Red Storm, which features a familiar star.

St. John’s (23–8) earned the right to face the No. 20 Tar Heels (21-10) in a 4 p.m. first-round game Saturday (ESPN) at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, with a victory in the same arena by scoring an NCAA tournament school record 11 3-pointers.

Carolina arrived in Columbus on Wednesday and got in a 90-minute practice.

Fifth-year Pittsburgh transfer guard Jayla Everett (top photo) scored a team-high 20 points, including a driving shot with 0.3 of a second left to win it. Her jumper with 1:30 left ended a nearly five-minute fourth-quarter St. John’s scoring drought after Purdue rallied to tie it with a 15–2 run.

St. John’s made 8 of 14 3-point attempts in the first half and finished 11 of 23.

“Just so proud of this group,” St. John’s coach Joe Tartamella said, sitting next to Everett and senior guard Unique Drake. “I can’t put into words what both of these kids next to me on my left and right have meant to the program in different ways, the joy that I got to see in that locker room. Obviously, we have another game coming up. But this was a big piece to obviously validating a lot of things that they believed in all year and probably started back in June.”

The Red Storm has several good perimeter shooters, but Everett is at the top of the scouting report. She leads the team in scoring at 15.8 points per game and is 15th in the country in 3-point shooting percentage at 42.4%.

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Everett led Pittsburgh in scoring the last two seasons, averaging 13.6 points last season and 15.4 points in her junior season. She lost both meetings with UNC, scoring 22 points on Jan. 14, 2021, in an 81–72 home loss and 18 points on Feb. 10, 2022, in a 64–54 defeat in Chapel Hill.

“You play back-to-back here, but at least you get a day [off],” Tartamella said. “For me, my philosophy has always been to worry about what’s ahead of us but certainly be prepared for what’s up next. So, we will do that and do everything we can to prepare our team and be ready to play on Saturday.”

St. John’s finished fourth in the Big East at 13–7 and split a pair of games with No. 6 UConn, winning in Hartford, Conn., 69–64 on Feb. 21. It also won at home 66–62 Dec. 4 against currently unranked Creighton, which was No. 13 at the time.

Two other excellent shooters are 6–0 redshirt senior guard Kadaja Bailey (37.3% 3-point shooting percentage) and Drake (35.8%), who came off the bench to score 16 points and four 3-pointers against Purdue (19–11).

St. John’s is in the NCAA tournament for the 11th time in school history but for the first time in seven years.

St. John’s, which had no common opponents with Carolina, took a four-point lead with an 8–0 second-quarter run and never trailed after that, leading 39–33 at halftime. The Red Storm started the second half with a 10–2 run and led by 15 points late in the third quarter.

A 15–2 Purdue run tied it with 3:10 left in a Lasha Petree jumper. An Everett jumper put St. John’s back up by two before Petree, who scored 20 points, hit a tying jumper with 30 seconds left ahead of Everett’s game-winner.

Carolina has won all six meetings with St. John’s, including an 81–79 OT victory in the first round of the 1984 NCAA tournament in Chapel Hill.

St. John’s has a NET ranking of 55, compared to UNC’s 21.

St. John’s 66, Purdue 64

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UNC vs. St. John’s

Feb. 2, 1987, 69–61 win at St. John’s
March 16, 1984, 81–79 OT win in first round of the NCAA tournament in Chapel Hill
Feb. 2, 1987, 69–61 win at St. John’s
Nov. 27, 1998, 77–67 win in Honolulu, Hawaii
Dec. 20, 2006, 87–43 win in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Dec. 6, 2009, 83–73 home win

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Columbus subregional

At the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio
Thursday’s play-in game
St. John’s 66, Purdue 64
Saturday’s first-round games
No. 3-seed Ohio State (25–7) vs. No. 14 James Madison (26–7), 1:30, ESPN2
No. 6 North Carolina (21–10) vs. No. 11 St. John’s (23–8), 4 p.m., ESPN
Monday’s second round
Saturday winners

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Storrs subregional

At Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn.
Saturday’s first-round games
No. 2 UConn (29–5) vs. No. 15 Vermont (25–6), 3 p.m., ABC
No. 7-seed Baylor (19–12) vs. No. 10 Alabama (20–10), 5:30, ESPN2
Monday’s second round
Saturday winners

Seattle Regional 3

At Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle
Saturday, March 25 regional semifinals
Columbus, Ohio, subregional winner vs. Storrs subregional winner
Knoxville, Tenn., subregional winner (No. 4 Tennesee, No. 13 Saint Louis, No. 5 Iowa State or No. 12 Toledo) vs. Blacksburg, Va. subregional winner (No. 1 Virginia Tech, No. 16 Chatanooga, No. 8 Southern Cal or No. 9 South Dakota State)
Monday, March 27 regional final
Regional semifinal winners

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Bracket

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Date	Month/day	Time/score	Opponent/event (current ranking)	Location	Record
	November
9	Wednesday	W, 91–59	Jackson State	Home	1–0
12	Saturday	W, 75–48	TCU	Home	2–0
16	Wednesday	W, 93–25	South Carolina State	Home	3–0
20	Sunday	W, 76–65	James Madison	Harrisonburg, Va.	4–0
			Phil Knight Invitational
24	Thursday	W, 85–79	Oregon	Portland	5–0
27	Sunday	W, 73–64	No. 17 Iowa State	Portland	6–0
	December		ACC/Big Ten Challenge
1	Thursday	L, 87–63	No. 2 Indiana	Bloomington, Ind.	6–1
7	Wednesday	W, 64–42	UNCW	Home	7–1
11	Sunday	W, 99–67	Wofford	Home	8–1
16	Friday	W, 89–47	USC Upstate	Home	9–1
			Jumpman Invitational
20	Tuesday	L, 76–68	No. 18 Michigan	Charlotte	9–2
			ACC season begins
29	Thursday	L, 78–71	Florida State	Home	9–3, 0–1 ACC
	January
1	Sunday	L, 68–65	No. 4 Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, Va.	9–4, 0–2 ACC
5	Thursday	L, 62–58	Miami	Coral Gables, Fla.	9–5, 0–3 ACC
8	Sunday	W, 60–50	No. 10 Notre Dame	Home	10–5, 1–3 ACC
12	Thursday	W, 70–59	Virginia	Charlottesville, Va.	11–5, 2–3 ACC
15	Sunday	W, 56–47	N.C. State	Home	12–5, 3–3 ACC
19	Thursday	W, 61–56	No. 13 Duke	Home	13–5, 4–3 ACC
22	Sunday	W, 70–57	Georgia Tech	Home	14–5, 5–3 ACC
26	Thursday	W, 72–57	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh	15–5, 6–3 ACC
29	Sunday	W, 69–58	Clemson	Clemson	16–5, 7–3 ACC
	February
2	Thursday	W, 73–62	Virginia	Home	17–5, 8–3 ACC
5	Sunday	L, 62–55	Louisville	Louisville	17–6, 8–4 ACC
9	Thursday	L, 75–67	Syracuse	Syracuse	17–7, 8–5 ACC
12	Sunday	W, 73–55	Boston College	Home	18–7, 9–5 ACC
16	Thursday	L, 77–66, OT	N.C. State	Raleigh	18–8, 9–6 ACC
19	Sunday	W, 71–58	Wake Forest	Home	19–8, 10–6 ACC
23	Thursday	L, 61–59	No. 4 Virginia Tech	Home	19–9, 10–7 ACC
26	Sunday	W, 45–41	No. 13 Duke	Durham	20–9, 10–8 ACC
	March		ACC Tournament
2	Thursday	W, 68–58	Clemson	Greensboro	21–9
3	Friday	L, 44–40	No. 13 Duke	Greensboro	21–10
			NCAA tournament
18	Saturday	W, 61–59	St. John’s	Columbus, Ohio	22–10
20	Monday	L, 71–69	No. 12 Ohio State	Columbus, Ohio	22–11

Photo via @StJohnsWBB