RJ Luis Jr. tallied 24 points and eight rebounds, Zuby Ejiofor had 15 points and nine boards and visiting St. John’s ran roughshod over Seton Hall 79-51 on Saturday night in Newark, N.J.
St. John’s (16-3, 7-1 Big East) improved to 11-1 in its last 12 games and grabbed the outright conference lead after No. 7 Marquette’s loss dropped it to 6-1 earlier in the day.
Kadary Richmond recorded 12 points, five rebounds and six assists for St. John’s in his first game against his former school, where he played for three seasons before transferring last spring. Aaron Scott added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Red Storm.
Seton Hall (6-12, 1-6) shot a season-low 26.3 percent from the field (15 of 57), including 13.3 percent (4 of 30) in the first half. Isaiah Coleman led the Pirates with 11 points and six rebounds but went just 1-for-13 from the floor.
Richmond fed Ejiofor for a dunk on the game’s opening possession, and he made back-to-back buckets at the rim to establish a 9-1 St. John’s lead. Seton Hall opened its abysmal half 1-for-21 from the floor, with Prince Aligbe supplying the only made field goal.
Scott grabbed a steal and went on a 2-on-1 fast break with Deivon Smith, ending in Smith’s alley-oop to Scott for a dunk and a 26-7 lead with 8:58 until halftime.
Chaunce Jenkins made a 3-pointer out of a timeout to end the Pirates’ drought. But they trailed by as many as 24 points before St. John’s made it 39-16 at the break. Jenkins left late in the first half with an apparent left knee injury.
Luis’ easy steal and fastbreak dunk gave St. John’s its first 25-point lead at 43-18 with 18:42 to play.
The Pirates finally started fighting back. In a 15-second span, Garwey Dual stripped Richmond, dunked, stole from Richmond again and fed Aligbe for a basket to trim the margin to 45-29.
Simeon Wilcher stemmed the tide with his dunk late in the shot clock, and the Red Storm were soon back in control.
Smith assisted another alley-oop dunk, this time on a breakout with Luis with 9:53 to play. St. John’s led by at least 18 the rest of the way. A late 10-0 run powered by Red Storm reserves grew the lead to as large as 32 points.
–Field Level Media
