St. John’s Drops DePaul, 82-74, in BIG EAST Tournament Opener

Wednesday, March 13

New York, N.Y. (Madison Square Garden)

9:30 p.m.

St. John's University

21-11

DePaul

15-15

DePaul

St. John's

St. John’s Drops DePaul, 82-74, in BIG EAST Tournament Opener

3/14/2019 12:47:00 AM | Men's Basketball

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Red Storm will take on second-seeded Marquette on Thursday at 7 p.m.

NEW YORK (March 13, 2019) – Just two days after being named the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year, Justin Simon demonstrated in full force why the league's coaches bestowed him with the honor. Ten days after Max Strus netted 43 points against the Red Storm in Chicago, Simon smothered the prolific scorer and Second Team All-BIG EAST selection, as St. John's downed DePaul, 82-74, in the opening session of the BIG EAST Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

The Red Storm's 21st win of the season secured St. John's a Thursday evening date with second-seeded Marquette in the quarterfinal round. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. on FS1 on 970 AM WNYM.

Simon also led a balanced offensive attack for the Red Storm (21-11), who put five players in double figures for the first time since the team's win at Georgetown on Jan. 5. The redshirt junior guard, who also grabbed six boards and dished out four assists, was one of three Johnnies to finish with 18 points.

Shamorie Ponds' 18 points moved him into fifth place on the program's all-time scoring list, as he passed Bob Zawoluk with his 1,827th career point. The Brooklyn native, who made seven of his 11 field goal attempts and three of his four tries from three-point range, also recorded seven assists and just one turnover while registering three steals.

Mustapha Heron tallied his 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting and pulled down seven boards in 38 minutes of action.

LJ Figueroa sank six of his 12 field goal tries for 14 points while Marvin Clark II registered 10 points and five boards in 27 minutes.

One of the nation's top teams in terms of turnover margin, St. John's surrendered just eight miscues on the afternoon, only two of which came after the intermission. The Johnnies turned DePaul's 13 turnovers into 19 points.

The opening session of the BIG EAST drew a sellout crowd of 19,812, marking the first time since conference realignment that the first doubleheader of the BIG EAST Tournament filled "The World's Most Famous Arena."

The Red Storm found it hard to miss in the early going, sinking five of its first seven attempts from the floor and jumping out to a 13-4 lead with just over four minutes gone in the contest.

Leading by 10, 16-6, with 13:37 to go in the first half, St. John's saw DePaul rattle off a 12-2 run to tie the game at 18 on a Strus four-point play.

The two teams traded runs over the next few minutes, as St. John's moved ahead by six, 25-19, before DePaul battled back to tie the game at 27 and 29. From there, Simon scored eight of the Red Storm's final 10 points of the period and helped the Johnnies take a four-point edge, 39-35, into the break.

The Red Storm came out of the gate firing in the second half, scoring its first bucket of the period on an alley-oop slam from Ponds to Figueroa.

The Johnnies steadily built their lead over the next several minutes, moving ahead by 14, 62-48, on a Ponds jumper with11:07 to play.

DePaul whittled its deficit down to eight, 65-57, following a 9-3 run, forcing a St. John's timeout with just over eight and a half remaining in the contest. On the other side of the stoppage, the Red Storm rattled off the games' next nine points, as four different Johnnies found the bottom of the bucket to help push the edge to 17, 74-57, with just under six minutes to go.

The Blue Demons (15-15) did not pull back within single digits until a Devin Gage jumper with four seconds to play.