St. John’s Falls at No. 14/12 Villanova

Saturday, January 29

Villlanova, Pa. (Finneran Pavilion)

4:30 p.m.

St. John's University

11-8, 3-5BE

No. 14/12 Villanova

16-5, 9-2BE

St. John's

Villanova

1/29/2022 7:34:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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Montez Mathis leads Red Storm with 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting Saturday at Finneran Pavilion

VILLANOVA, Pa. – The St. John's men's basketball team dropped a BIG EAST contest at Villanova on Saturday afternoon, falling to the Wildcats, 73-62.

The Red Storm (11-8, 3-5 BIG EAST) trailed by as many as 20 before shaving the deficit down to nine in the closing minutes.

Montez Mathis was the lone Johnnie to finish in double figures, netting 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

Julian Champagnie finished with nine points on 4-of-12 shooting. The Brooklyn native also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and blocked a pair of shots.

Tareq Coburn and Posh Alexander tallied seven points apiece.

As a team, St. John's shot just 19.0 percent (4-of-21) from deep and converted on only eight of its 17 free throw attempts (47.1%).

After Villanova (16-5, 9-2 BIG EAST) scored the game's opening bucket, the Johnnies responded with seven straight to take an early lead that stretched to as many as six points.

Down 20-19 following a Mathis jumper with 6:40 to go in the half, St. John's went scoreless for the next 4:45, as the Wildcats uncorked a 16-0 run to move ahead 36-19 with 2:14 on the clock.

St. John's ended the half with back-to-back buckets, cutting its deficit to 14 with 20 minutes to play.

After making one of its first nine field goal attempts, Villanova responded by making 12 of its next 13 to end the first half.

St. John's pulled within 11, 45-34, on a Champagnie jumper with 13:49 to go, but the Wildcats slowly built their lead to as many as 20 with just under seven minutes to play.

The Red Storm used a 13-2 run to cut its deficit to nine, 66-57, on a Stef Smith trey with 2:10 remaining, but that was as close as the Johnnies would get.

St. John's will return to action on Tuesday when it plays host to No. 17 Providence at Carnesecca Arena. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. on CBS Sports Network. To purchase tickets, click here.