St. John’s Holds Off No. 16/17 Arizona, 70-67

Saturday, December 21

San Francisco, Calif. (Chase Center)

10 p.m.

St. John's University

11-2

Arizona

10-3

St. John's

Arizona

12/22/2019 1:22:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Highlights Postgame Quotes Postgame Press Conference Photo Gallery Photo Gallery

Red Storm picks up its first ranked win of the season in its first opportunity

SAN FRANCISCO (Dec. 21, 2019) – After watching its 15-point lead evaporate and falling behind for the first time with just over a minute to play, the St. John's men's basketball team dug deep and came up with a winning effort against No. 16/17 Arizona to pick up its first ranked victory of the season, 70-67, on Saturday night at Chase Center in the Basketball Hall of Fame Al Attles Classic.

Arizona took its only lead of the game with just 1:23 to play, as Max Hazzard drained the team's third 3-pointer of the night to put the Wildcats ahead, 67-66. With the Red Storm on a field goal drought of more than five minutes, Nick Rutherford drove and laid it in to quickly put the Johnnies back on top with just over a minute to go. The Red Storm then forced two misses from star freshman Nico Mannion before Greg Williams Jr. grabbed what would be the game-sealing rebound.

The Red Storm ends non-conference play with a record of 11-2, defeating an Arizona (10-3) team that had only lost to squads currently ranked inside the top 10 nationally in Gonzaga and Baylor. Mike Anderson's 11 wins in non-conference play are a program record for a first-year head coach since the Johnnies joined the BIG EAST in 1979. Mike Jarvis won nine in 1998-99 while Steve Lavin won eight in 2010-11; both of those campaigns ended with an NCAA Tournament berth.

Coming into the game averaging 85.1 points per game on 49.9 percent shooting, the nation's fifth highest scoring average and 14^th best field goal percentage, Arizona was limited to 67 points on 39.6 percent shooting, including a 3-for-16 showing from three-point range. St. John's recorded nine steals and 17 points off 13 Arizona turnovers.

LJ Figueroa cracked the 20-point plateau for the second time in his last three outings, scoring a team-high 21 points to go along with four rebounds and a game-high three steals.

Rasheem Dunn netted eight of his 14 points from the charity stripe, reaching double figures for the eighth time in 10 tries this season.

Playing without the services of Mustapha Heron, the team's second leading scorer, for the second straight game, St. John's received a stellar offensive contribution from Rutherford, who finished with eight points on 3-of-5 shooting to go along with five rebounds, three assists and a steal.

Averaging just 7.0 minutes per game entering Saturday night's contest, Damien Sears put forth his best effort as a Johnnie, finishing with four points, six boards, an assist and a steal. Williams Jr. also played a key role despite not scoring, tallying six rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.

Defense led to offense for St. John's in the early going, as the Johnnies forced six turnovers and shot out to a 23-9 lead with just over eight minutes gone in the contest. Marcellus Earlington scored all seven of his points on the run while Dunn added the other three. Four of those 10 points came off turnovers while two more resulted from a Williams block. The Red Storm sank nine of its first 14 field goal attempts during that opening stretch.

Arizona battled back, trimming the deficit to seven on a pair of occasions before Figueroa drained a 3-pointer with five minutes to go, kicking off an 11-4 St. John's run to close the half. Figueroa scored seven of those points, including a 15-foot underhanded runner off the glass to beat the buzzer and give St. John's a 40-26 lead heading into the locker room. The Red Storm scored the final six points of the half.

Figueroa, who tallied seven of the team's first nine points in the early going, finished the opening stanza with 16 points.

The Wildcats came out of the locker and made their first four field goals tries of the half, trimming the St. John's lead to eight, 44-36, with a 10-2 run in the opening 3:12 of the second period.

The Red Storm promptly built its lead back to 15, as Dunn scored five points in the span of just 50 seconds, including an and-one off a steal from Rutherford. Rutherford then capped the 7-0 run with a bucket of his own, putting the Red Storm on top by a score of 51-36 with 13:22 to go. Defense played a key role in this run as well, as Arizona missed eight straight field goal tries.

Trailing 61-48 with eight minutes to play, Arizona unleashed a 13-4 run to pull within four, 63-59, with just under five minutes remaining. With most of their points coming from the charity stripe, Arizona continued to chip into the deficit before pulling ahead on Hazzard's triple with 1:23 to go.

That long range bucket would be Arizona's last of the evening; however, as St. John's scored the final four points of the game to claim its 70-67 victory.

Another ranked foe awaits the Red Storm after a long break, as the Johnnies will open BIG EAST play against No. 17/16 Butler on Dec. 31 at 7:30 p.m. inside Carnesecca Arena. Tickets are available for just $20.20 at RedStormTix.com by using the promo code 2020.