St. John’s Falls to Xavier, 84-73

Thursday, February 28

Queens, N.Y. (Carnesecca Arena)

6:30 p.m.

St. John's University

(20-9, 8-8BE)

Xavier

(16-13, 8-8BE)

Xavier

St. John's

2/28/2019 9:37:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Johnnies come up short in final outing of the year at Carnesecca Arena

QUEENS, N.Y. – Playing its final contest of the season at Carnesecca Arena, the St. John's men's basketball team suffered just its second loss of the year in Queens, falling to Xavier, 84-73.

The Musketeers (16-13, 8-8 BIG EAST), who won their fifth-straight contest, pulled even with the Johnnies for third place in the conference standings with just two games to play. The two teams will meet again in their regular season finale on March 9.

St. John's (20-9, 8-8 BIG EAST) outshot Xavier from the line in terms of percentage, 80.0 to 75.8, but the Musketeers took 33 attempts to the Red Storm's five.

LJ Figueroa led the way offensively for St. John's, posting 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting to go along with five rebounds and four assists. Shamorie Ponds tallied 13 points, six assists and four steals, while Marvin Clark II added 11 points and three helpers in his final contest at Carnesecca Arena.

Bryan Trimble Jr. connected on three triples for nine points on the evening, while Josh Roberts flushed all four of his field goal attempts to finish with a career-high eight points.

The Musketeers jumped out to a sizeable lead in the early going, making five of their first eight field goal attempts and grabbing a 13-5 edge at the first media timeout. The Johnnies responded with eight unanswered to knot the score at 13, but a 12-2 Xavier spurt gave the Musketeers a double-digit lead, 25-15, near the midway mark of the half.

The Red Storm answered with five straight to cut it to five, but Xavier soon unleashed a 7-0 run to take a 36-24 lead, its largest of the half, with just under three minutes to go. The Johnnies managed to trim the deficit before the intermission, heading into the locker room with an eight-point deficit, 38-30, following Ponds' first bucket of the contest in the closing minute of the period.

On the other side of the break, the Red Storm cut the Xavier advantage to four, 46-42, on a Ponds triple from the top of the key with just under five minutes gone in the action, but the Musketeers quickly answered with six straight to move back ahead by double digits.

The Red Storm rallied once again, whittling the deficit down to three, 58-55, on a Ponds and-1 with 10 minutes to play. Xavier, however, responded with a 9-2 run to restore its 10-point lead, 67-57, less than three minutes later.

Xavier would expand its lead to as many as 16 in the closing minutes of the contest before a late St. John's push cut the deficit to seven in the final minute.

St. John's returns to action on Sunday, traveling to The Windy City for a 12 p.m. ET showdown with DePaul. The contest will air live on FS1 and AM 970 WNYM.