St. John’s Falls to BYU, 74-68

Wednesday, December 2

Uncasville, Conn. (Mohegan Sun Arena)

5 p.m.

St. John's University

3-1

BYU

4-1

St. John's

BYU

12/2/2020 8:06:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Photo Gallery Quotes VIDEO: Postgame Press Conference Photo Gallery

Julian Champagnie tallies game-high 25 points in the loss

Box Score (PDF)
Photo Gallery
Quotes
VIDEO: Postgame Press Conference

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – The St. John's men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season on Wednesday night, falling to BYU, 74-68, at Mohegan Sun Arena in the Roman Legends Classic presented by Old Trapper.

Julian Champagnie once again led the way for St. John's (3-1), scoring 25 points on 10-of-20 shooting to go along with five rebounds and three assists. The sophomore, who tallied 29 points and 10 boards in his season debut on Monday against Boston College, has now eclipsed the 20-point plateau in four of his last five games dating back to last season.

Isaih Moore reached double figures for the second time in four appearances as a Johnnie, scoring 11 points with two blocks and a steal. The former NJCAA All-American made four of his six shot attempts from inside the three-point arc.

Logging 35 minutes of playing time for the second straight game, Greg Williams Jr. registered another complete showing, finishing with 10 points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists.

Despite scoring only four points, freshman guard Posh Alexander made his presence felt in other ways, dishing out a game-high seven assists to go with six rebounds and a pair of steals. Fellow freshman Dylan Addae-Wusu, Alexander's former high school teammate, scored eight points and recorded two thefts before fouling out.

As a team, St. John's turned 19 BYU turnovers into 23 points, but it wasn't enough to slow a 3-point barrage that saw the Cougars connect on 10 triples. St. John's, on the other hand, went just 4-for-21 from beyond the arc.

Trailing 9-5 with five and half minutes gone in the game, St. John's unleashed a 7-0 run to move ahead by three with 12:28 to play in the period.

From there, the Johnnies went cold, going more than seven minutes without a field goal and watching BYU score 12 unanswered points to take a 21-12 lead with seven minutes remaining in the half.

The Red Storm would score the game's next five points to pull within four, but that was as close as St. John's would get for the rest of half, entering the intermission with a 29-23 deficit.

St. John's quickly cut into the BYU lead on the other side of the break, getting back-to-back stops to start the half and trimming the deficit to one, 29-28, with less than a minute gone in the action. During that sequence, Champagnie converted on an old-fashioned three-point play while Moore threw down a thunderous dunk on the fast break.

A few minutes later, St. John's used a 7-0 tear to tie game at 43, but BYU answered with 13-4 spurt of its own to move ahead by nine with 9:45 remaining, matching its largest lead of the game to that point.

St. John's quickly responded with a 7-0 run to slash the Cougar advantage down to two, 56-54, with 7:17 to play, but that was as close as the Red Storm would get down the stretch, as BYU scored 14 of the game's next 20 points to take its only double-digit lead of the night with just over two minutes to go.

The Red Storm will close out pre-conference play with a pair of games at Carnesecca Arena beginning on Sunday when the Johnnies welcome Stony Brook for a 2:30 p.m. contest on FS1. Two days later on Dec. 8, St. John's will play host to Rider on CBS Sports Network at 7 p.m.