Dropping DePaul has surging St. John’s atop Big East standings
ROSEMONT, Ill. — After recording its first win against a ranked opponent in three years on Thursday night, St. John’s made it three wins in a row Sunday as four players scored in double-figures to push the Red Storm past DePaul 79-73.
Marcus Lovett Jr. scored 22 points as the Johnnies started 2-0 in Big East play for the first time since 2010-11.
The Red Storm (8-7, 2-0) followed up their win over No. 13 Butler by beating the Blue Demons (7-8, 0-2), who lost by three points to top-ranked Villanova in their Big East opener.
“All these experiences are very valuable. Even the tough losses, we have to learn from them,” St. John’s coach Chris Mullin said. “We had two good wins, but we didn’t get over excited. … Tonight in the first half we played OK. Our defense was a little lackadaisical. The second half we came out and held them to 33 points. We had 18 assists, so the ball was moving. I told them to win on the road you have to play 40 minutes. They hung in there, played well together and more importantly, trusted each other.”
Shamorie Ponds added 15 points and Bashir Ahmed four 3-pointers and 14 points. Darien Williams had 12 points and nine rebounds. The Red Storm, Villanova and Xavier are the only teams off to a 2-0 start in the Big East.
“Both Marcus [LoVett] and Shamorie [Ponds] are really talented. They are a little bit different [players],” Mullin said. “Marcus has really great speed and can get to the paint. Shamorie is a little smoother with angles; but they’re both very unselfish. Tonight Malik [Ellison] played a great floor game as well. We really emphasize playing unselfishly on both sides of the ball.”
Eli Cain scored 18 points, including all of DePaul’s in a 7-2 run to get the Blue Demons within 68-66 with 3:19 left but St. John’s responded with its own 7-2 spurt capped by two Lovett free throws for a seven-point lead with 43 seconds remaining.
St. John’s took the lead for good at 66-59 with 5 ½ minutes left on a 7-0 run via Tariq Owens’ 3-point play and four Williams free throws.
St. John’s returns to action Wednesday, looking for its third-consecutive Big East win against No. 10 Creighton at Carnesecca Arena.
Seton Hall 69, Marquette 66
In South Orange, N.J., Khadeen Carrington scored five of his 12 points on one extended possession in the final 30 seconds and Seton Hall pulled out a wild win over Marquette.
Katin Reinhardt, who had five 3s and 15 points in the first half, scored on a backdoor layup for his only points of the second half, putting Marquette up 66-63 with 38 seconds left. After a timeout, Carrington made a driving layup and was fouled with 26.9 seconds remaining.
Angel Delgado led Seton Hall (11-3, 1-1 Big East) with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Markus Howard added 14 points for Marquette (10-4, 1-1).