St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
13-7, 2-5BE
Creighton
10-12, 1-8BE
St. John's Falls At Creighton, 77-74
1/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Press Conference | Box Score | USATSI Gallery 
OMAHA, Neb. - D'Angelo Harrison back rimmed a 3-pointer at the buzzer as the St. John's men's basketball team came up on the short end of a 77-74 decision against Creighton (10-12, 1-8) on Wednesday at CenturyLink Center Omaha. Harrison finished with a team-high 18 points and Jamal Branch had a season-best 17 points to lead the Red Storm.
St. John's (13-7, 2-5) trailed by as many as 11 points late in the first half and faced a 10-point halftime deficit before opening the second half on a 15-2 run. Branch scored seven-straight points, and back-to-back buckets by Sir'Dominic Pointer sent the Red Storm on top by one. Phil Greene IV capped the offensive flurry with a jumper to give St. John's a 42-39 advantage with 15:44 left in regulation.
Pointer finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds to record his third-straight double-double and fifth of the season. He also posted game-highs with six assists, three blocks and three steals. Rysheed Jordan had four points and played seven minutes in the first half before leaving the contest with an injury.
"With Rysheed injured it put us in a tough spot yet the team fought hard and rallied from down double digits in a tough environment," said St. John's head coach Steve Lavin.
The lead switched sides 10 times in the second half as neither team held more than a four-point advantage in the final 18 minutes of action. The Red Storm took a four-point lead at 9:22 when Branch connected on his second 3-pointer of the game. Branch hit five of his first six field goal attempts in the second half and finished 7-of-12 from the field and 3-of-4 beyond the arc.
"We knew it would be a dogfight," said Lavin. "We were sharp at both ends in the second half, closed the gap to take a lead but did not close it out."
The Red Storm had a two-point lead with 4:21 to go after Harrison buried one of his four 3-pointers. James Milliken answered with Creighton's next nine points to recapture a lead that the Bluejays would not relinquish. St. John's got within one point twice in the final two minutes, but Creighton hit all six free-throws down the stretch to preserve the victory.
Creighton hit 9-of-18 3-pointers in the first half shooting a blazing 50.0 percent from downtown. The Bluejays sank seven-straight 3s after Greene's triple gave St. John's its first lead of the contest, 15-12, with nine minutes to go in the opening half.
Toby Hegner drained three 3s in a row as part of a perfect 4-of-4 shooting effort from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes. Milliken hit his first 3-pointer of the game with 40 seconds remaining to give Creighton its largest advantage of the period. A Chris Obekpa (seven points, eight rebounds) free-throw with seven seconds to go trimmed the Red Storm's deficit to 10 at the break.
St. John's matched a season-high with 10 3s and shot 55.6 percent (10-of-18) from downtown. Greene went 2-of-3 from 3-point range and was the fourth St. John's player to score in double-figures with 10 points to go with six rebounds and five assists.
The Red Storm returns to action on Saturday at Madison Square Garden against Providence. Tip-off is scheduled for noon on FOX.
