St. John’s Falters at Providence, 78-59

Wednesday, February 20

Providence, R.I. (Dunkin' Donuts Center)

8:30 p.m.

St. John's University

Providence

15-12, 5-9BE

St. John's

Providence

2/20/2019 11:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Red Storm returns to action Saturday night against Seton Hall at Madison Square Garden

The St. John's men's basketball team struggled against Providence for the second time in as many weeks on Wednesday night, falling to the Friars, 78-59, at Dunkin' Donuts Center.

St. John's failed to crack 60 points for just the second time this season; the other occasion came against Providence at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 9.

By virtue of Seton Hall's loss to Xavier and Butler's loss to Marquette, the Red Storm (19-8, 7-7 BIG EAST) remains in a tie with the Pirates for third place in the conference standings with four regular season games to go.

The Red Storm trailed by three with less than two minutes to go in the first half before Providence (15-12, 5-9 BIG EAST) bridged the first and second half with a 17-5 run.

LJ Figueroa scored 16 points and recorded four steals for the third straight game. Justin Simon added 10 points while Marcellus Earlington chipped in a season-high 10 points in 11 minutes of action. Earlington also grabbed five boards and blocked a shot.

The Red Storm suffered a slow start to the evening, going without a bucket for the first 6:39 of game action. Providence scored on its first three possessions, but missed its next nine field goal chances and allowed the Johnnies to rattle off seven unanswered of their own.

The Friars then scored six straight to kick off a 14-4 run, giving the home team a 23-11 lead with 7:06 to go in the first half.

Trailing by eight, 28-20, coming out of the half's final media timeout, St. John's scored five straight to pull within three on a Figueroa slam with just under two minutes to play in the period.

Providence outscored St. John's 6-1 down the stretch to take a 34-26 edge into the locker room.

The Friars continued their streak on the other side of the intermission, scoring the first five points of the second half to take a 39-26 lead with just over a minute gone in the stanza.

Providence continued to pour it on the rest of the way, pulling ahead by as many as 28 before winning by a final score of 78-59.

St. John's will look to get back in the win column and enact a bit of revenge on Saturday night, welcoming local rival Seton Hall to Madison Square Garden for an 8 p.m. tip. The Johnnies will aim to avenge a last-second loss in Newark that opened BIG EAST play on Dec. 29.