St. John’s Falls to Seton Hall, 66-60

Saturday, January 22

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

12 p.m.

St. John's University

10-7, 2-4BE

Seton Hall

12-5, 3-4BE

Seton Hall

St. John's

1/22/2022 3:06:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Aaron Wheeler led Red Storm with 13 points to go with seven rebounds and three blocks

NEW YORK – The St. John's men's basketball team suffered its first home loss of BIG EAST play on Saturday, falling to Seton Hall, 66-60, at Madison Square Garden.

The Red Storm (10-7, 2-4 BIG EAST) shot a season-low 29.3 percent from the floor, including a 5-for-19 (26.3%) effort from three and a 25.7 percent success rate on layups (9-for-35). Ike Obiagu, the BIG EAST's leading shot blocker, tallied seven rejections for Seton Hall (12-5, 3-4 BIG EAST).

Graduate student Aaron Wheeler led the way with 13 points, his fifth straight game in double figures after reaching that mark just once in non-conference play.

Posh Alexander tallied 10 points, five assists, four rebounds and a pair of steals.

Julian Champagnie failed to reach double figures for the first time since the opening game of the 2020 BIG EAST Tournament, snapping a streak of 40-straight outings with 10 or more points. The junior scored nine points and grabbed three boards, becoming the 46^th player in program history to record 500 career rebounds.

Joel Soriano pulled down a season-high 14 rebounds in addition to scoring seven points. As a team, St. John's was outrebounded, 60-43.

Montez Mathis finished with nine points for the Red Storm, whose starting five combined to go 13-for-56 (23.2%) from the field.

St. John's began the game with an 8-0 run, as Seton Hall missed its first eight shots from the field. The Pirates responded with a 10-0 spurt, holding the Johnnies scoreless for 4:55.

The Red Storm climbed ahead 17-12 before a missed layup kickstarted a 7-0 Seton Hall run to regain the lead.

The two teams traded blows for the rest of the period before entering the locker room tied at 28.

Seton Hall opened the second half with an 11-4 run, pulling ahead by seven, 39-32, with three and a half minutes gone in the period.

The Pirates moved ahead by as many as nine, 46-37, before a 7-0 St. John's spurt pulled the Red Storm back within two, 46-44, with 11:02 to play. Wheeler and Dylan Addae-Wusu started the run with layups before Champagnie capped it with a triple.

Ahead 48-46 with 9:35 to play, Seton Hall rattled off six straight, holding St. John's scoreless for three minutes and pulling back on top by eight.

St. John's would not go away, clawing within four on three separate occasions during the stretch, but the Johnnies could not close the gap.

The Johnnies and Pirates will meet again in South Orange on Monday in the first BIG EAST game at Walsh Gymnasium since 1985. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. on FS1.