St. John’s Knocks Off No. 10/9 Marquette in Milwaukee

Tuesday, February 5

Milwaukee, Wis. (Fiserv Forum)

8 p.m. ET

St. John's University

17-6, 5-5BE

Marquette

19-4, 8-2BE

St. John's

Marquette

St. John’s Knocks Off No. 10/9 Marquette in Milwaukee

2/5/2019 11:10:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Junior Guard Shamorie Ponds Scored a Game-High 28 Points in Red Storm’s Second-Straight BIG EAST Road Win

After a furious second half rally gave Marquette its first lead in 38 minutes with just 32 seconds to go, the St. John's men's basketball team used a clutch bucket from Shamorie Ponds and a spectacular defensive effort from Mustapha Heron to hang on and defeat No. 10/9 Marquette, 70-69, at Fiserv Forum on Tuesday night.

With his team facing a one-point deficit, its first since the 18:34 mark of the first half, following a Sacar Anim 3-pointer with 32 seconds to play, Ponds took advantage of a Marquette miscue on defense to put the Red Storm back ahead by one 16 seconds later. On the ensuing offensive possession, Heron put forth a tremendous individual effort to force an off-balance shot from Markus Howard and secure a St. John's victory.

Marquette (19-4, 8-2 BIG EAST) had not lost since a New Year's Day drubbing at the hands of the Red Storm in Carnesecca Arena, rattling off a stretch of eight-straight victories in that span. In addition to snapping the Golden Eagles' winning streak, the Red Storm (17-6, 5-5 BIG EAST) also handed Marquette its first ever loss at Fiserv Forum, a building in which the team had been 14-0 with three ranked wins.

The win marked the third over a top-10 foe in the span of a little over a year for the Johnnies, who also defeated No. 1 Villanova and No. 4 Duke last February. The victory also gave the Red Storm its fourth Quadrant One triumph of the campaign.

The Red Storm's victory capped a 2-1 road trip that spanned eight days and resulted in a pair of Quad One wins. The Johnnies also became just the fifth team since conference realignment to sweep Marquette and Creighton in the same season.

In the second battle of the season between BIG EAST Player of the Year frontrunners, Ponds came out on top once again. The junior guard scored 28 points on 9-of-19 shooting in addition to a perfect 9-for-9 effort from the charity stripe. Ponds scored the Red Storm's final 10 points and 15 of the team's last 16 to close the game. The Brooklyn native also pulled down a team-high seven boards and swiped a pair of steals, becoming just the sixth player in St. John' history to record 200 thefts in a career, tying Sir'Dominic Pointer for fifth on the program's all-time steals list. Ponds has now scored 20 points or more in eight-straight conference games dating back to the Red Storm's first win over Marquette on Jan. 1 and has scored at least 20 in 14 of his 22 appearances this season.

Having scored just 17 points in his last four games combined entering the contest, Justin Simon authoritatively snapped his funk in Milwaukee. The redshirt junior guard sank eight of his 11 field goal tries and converted on all three of his free throw attempts, finishing with 19 points, just one off his season high. He also collected six boards and dished out a team-high three assists.

Heron added 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting from three-point land while LJ Figueroa chipped in nine points. Both Heron and Figueroa tallied four rebounds apiece.

Using just a seven-man rotation because of a hand injury to Bryan Trimble Jr., St. John's received two points apiece from Greg Williams Jr. and Sedee Keita, the latter of whom recorded two blocks.

Howard, the BIG EAST's leading scorer, netted 17 points for Marquette while Sam Hauser recorded a 19-point, 11-rebound double-double.

St. John's led by as many as 15 at the 15:42 mark of the second half before the Golden Eagles slowly started to chip away at the Red Storm advantage. Marquette trimmed the lead down to one on a pair of occasions in the final six minutes, but the Johnnies managed to respond on both occasions.

Leading by five, 68-63, following a pair of Ponds free throws with 1:24 to play, St. John's saw Marquette nail back-to-back treys to take its first lead since the game's opening 90 seconds.

Ponds then sank his final bucket before Heron's defensive stand sealed the victory for the Red Storm.

Leading by a pair, 10-8, with five and a half minutes gone in the contest, Heron drained a three before Simon added four straight of his own, capping a 7-0 run and putting the Johnnies ahead by nine with 12:05 to go in the opening stanza.

After Figueroa bumped the Red Storm's lead to 12, 25-13, with a floater, Howard snapped a streak of six consecutive misses to start the game by nailing a trey and converting on a four-point play, cutting the Johnnies' lead to a handful with just over five minutes left until the break. Marquette missed its first nine three-point attempts of the game before Howard's initial make.

The Johnnies used a quick 7-1 run to bump its lead back to 11, 34-23, two minutes later, punctuated by an alley-oop slam from Figueroa to Simon.

Leading by 10 at the half, the Red Storm quickly built its lead to 15 following a 5-0 spurt with just over four minutes gone in the period before Marquette began its slow climb back into the contest.

St. John's returns to action on Saturday at Madison Square Garden when the Johnnies host Providence at 12 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.