St. John's Falls to No. 4 Villanova, 105-68

Saturday, March 7

Philadelphia, Pa. (Wells Fargo Center)

2:00 PM

St. John's University

(21-10, 10-8BE)

105

No. 4/4 Villanova

(29-2, 16-2BE)

Team	1	2	F
St. John's (N.Y.)	46	22	68
Villanova	50	55	105

3/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

March 07, 2015

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PHILADEPHIA- St. John's had its four-game win streak snapped on Saturday as the short-handed Red Storm fell 105-68 to No. 4/4 Villanova (29-2, 16-2) at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Rysheed Jordan led St. John's (21-10, 10-8) in scoring for the second straight game with 21 points. The Wildcats had five players post double-digits, including 21 from Daniel Ochefu.

Winning seven of the final nine regular-season contests, St. John's enters the BIG EAST Tournament as the No. 5 seed and will face No. 4 Providence (21-10, 11-7) in the a quarterfinal matchup Thursday at Madison Square Garden. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on FOX Sports 1 and 970 AM (WNYM).

"Not having Chris (Obekpa) or Jamal (Branch) was tough," said St. John's Head Coach Steve Lavin. "I thought our kids fought really well in the first half, they were opportunistic and we made some threes, but Villanova wore us down and played really well on both ends of the floor."

Without Chris Obekpa and Jamal Branch who missed Saturday's contest due injuries, St. John's hit its first five shots and rushed out to a double-digit lead less than four minutes into the game. Phil Greene IV fueled the Johnnies quick start hitting his first two shots as part of a 14-point first half for the senior guard.

Jordan sank the first of three straight 3-pointers by the Red Storm. D'Angelo Harrison completed a four-point play, and then it was Greene who found the bottom of the net from long range. Sir'Dominic Pointer followed with a putback at 16:05 to send St. John's up 16-5.

St. John's maintained a lead for the first 16 minutes as Jordan scored 12 points and handed out five of his eight assists in the opening stanza. The Philadelphia native delivered one of the most electrifying dunks of the college basketball season soaring over Dylan Ennis for a thunderous one-handed slam to put St. John's up 10 at 7:29.

Greene hit his second 3-pointer of the first half, which gave St. John's an eight-point advantage, but the Wildcats scored the next 11 points with back-to-back threes coming from Josh Hart. JayVaughn Pinkston's basket at 3:50 gave Villanova its first lead of the game and the Wildcats took a 50-46 lead into halftime.

The Wildcats went to work on the interior in the second half with Ochefu scoring 13 of his 21 points in the final 20 minutes. After Jordan drained his third 3-pointer to get within four points, Villanova answered with a pair of threes and then nine straight points from Ochefu to go up by double-digits.

Harrison fouled out with six minutes to play triggering St. John's to go deep on its bench to finish out the contest. Felix Balamou scored four points in 16 minutes of action, while Christian Jones played 15 minutes and sank a pair of free-throws.

Pinkston finished with 18 points and Ennis added 17 to help first-place Villanova win its 12th straight game and improve to 17-0 at home this season. Hart had 13 points and Darrun Hilliard chipped in 14.

"Villanova played lights out," said Lavin. "There is a reason they are 29-2 and have a No. 1 seed all but locked up. We had a great run down the stretch, winning seven of the previous eight games and positioning ourselves for the postseason. We just have to get healthy and then ready for Providence on Thursday."