Duke Downs St. John’s, 91-61

Saturday, February 2

Durham, N.C. (Cameron Indoor Stadium)

12 p.m.

St. John's University

16-6

Duke

19-2

St. John's

Duke

2/2/2019 2:44:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Strong second half pushes Blue Devils past Red Storm

Looking to hand Duke its first non-conference loss at home in nearly two decades, the St. John's men's basketball team had no answer for the Blue Devils' heralded freshmen class, falling 91-61 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Zion Williamson scored a game-high 29 points on 13-of-17 shooting while Cam Reddish added 16 and RJ Barrett chipped in 15 points and 14 rebounds. Tre Jones tallied 13 points, seven assists, seven rebounds and three steals.

LJ Figueroa scored 12 of his team-high 14 points in the first half and collected eight rebounds. Marvin Clark II netted all 12 of his points in the opening stanza.

After going scoreless in the first half, Shamorie Ponds finished with 11 points, four assists and four steals. The effort broke a streak of seven straight games with 20 or more points for the junior guard.

Mustapha Heron was the fourth St. John's player in double figures with 10 points. Sedee Keita tied a season-high with six points for the Red Storm.

The Red Storm trailed by just two late in the opening half before being out outscored 28-6 in a seven and a half minute stretch spanning the end of the first and beginning of the second stanzas.

Duke sank its first five field goal attempts of the game, three of which came from beyond the arc, and jumped out to an early lead 12-5 lead less than three minutes into the contest. The Johnnies responded in kind, outscoring Duke 14-4 over the next three minutes to take their first lead of the game, 19-16, on a Clark triple with 14:09 to go in the first half.

The frenetic pace of the early going slowed over the next few minutes, as both teams' red hot shooting percentages feel back towards earth. The squads traded buckets before the Blue Devils slowly opened a six-point lead, 31-25, with 6:45 to go. Trailing by that same six point margin, 35-29, a few minutes later, the Johnnies cut it to two, 35-33, following a Keita put back and a driving layup from Figueroa, but the Blue Devils outscored the Johnnies 12-4 the rest of the way to take a 47-37 edge into the locker room.

Following a pair of free throws from Ponds to open the second half, Duke unleashed a 16-0 run in the span of 3:09 to open a 63-39 lead with just under 16 minutes to go.

Duke built its lead to as many as 32 in the closing minute before winning by a final score of 91-61.

The Red Storm will close its three-game road swing on Tuesday in Milwaukee, taking on No. 10/9 Marquette at Fiserv Forum.