St. John’s Falls to Seton Hall, 77-68, in BIG EAST Opener

Friday, December 11

Newark, N.J. (Prudential Center)

4:30 p.m.

St. John's University

5-2,0-1BE

Seton Hall

4-3,1-0BE

St. John's

Seton Hall

Photo by: Porter Binks/Big East Conference

St. John’s Falls to Seton Hall, 77-68, in BIG EAST Opener

12/11/2020 7:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Julian Champagnie scores team-high 24 points in the loss

NEWARK, N.J. – Preseason First Team All-BIG EAST selection Sandro Mamukelashvili scored a career-high 33 points on 12-of-18 shooting, recording nearly half of his team's offensive output to lead Seton Hall past St. John's, 77-68, on Friday evening at Prudential Center.

After trailing by as many as 12 in the opening minutes of the second half, St. John's (5-2) whittled the deficit down to three on a pair of occasions, but the Pirates managed to answer each time.

Julian Champagnie led the way once again for St. John's, registering 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting to go along with six rebounds and three blocks. Champagnie, who is averaging 22.4 points per game on the campaign, has now registered 20 or more points three times in five opportunities this season and five times in his last eight chances dating back to last year.

Champagnie led four Johnnies in double figures. Greg Williams Jr. scored 12 points in addition to dishing out three assists while Vince Cole scored 11 and Rasheem Dunn added 10 in his first appearance since suffering a concussion in the Red Storm's season opener on Nov. 25.

Dylan Addae-Wusu led the Red Storm with six assists on the evening while surrendering just one turnover and collecting five rebounds.

St. John's forced Seton Hall (4-3) into 15 turnovers, but converted those extra possessions into just 13 points.

The Red Storm attempted only 10 free throws, making six of those. Seton Hall went 20-of-28 from the charity stripe.

The Pirates jumped ahead in the early going, using an 11-3 run to move ahead by eight, 13-5, with seven minutes gone in the contest.

Trailing by 10 near the midway mark of the first half, the Johnnies uncorked a 12-2 run to tie the game at 23 on a Champagnie layup with 4:42 remaining until the intermission. The Brooklyn tallied six points on the spurt.

Leading by five, 35-30, at the break, Seton Hall scored the first six points on the latter stanza to move ahead by 11, 41-30, with just over a minute gone in the second half.

After trailing by as many as 12, St. John's whittled its deficit down to three, 54-51, with 9:09 to play after Dunn scored six points on an 8-1 Red Storm run.

Seton Hall built its lead back to eight with five minutes to play, but the Red Storm cut the Pirates' edge back down to three, 65-62, following four straight points from Champagnie with 3:07 remaining.

That was as close as St. John's would get, however, as Seton Hall made the most of its free throw chances to end the game with a nine-point margin, 77-68.

The Red Storm will return to action on Sunday, traveling to Georgetown for a 7:30 p.m. matchup with the Hoyas on FS1.