No. 22/20 St. John’s Rolls Past Virginia, 80-55, in Baha Mar Hoops Championship Consolation Game

Friday, November 22

Nassau, Bahamas (Baha Mar Convention, Arts & Entertainment Center)

7 p.m.

St. John's University

5-1,0-0Big East

Virginia

3-2,0-0ACC

Virginia

St. John's (NY)

No. 22/20 St. John’s Rolls Past Virginia, 80-55, in Baha Mar Hoops Championship Consolation Game

11/22/2024 10:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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RJ Luis Jr. scored a game-high 18 points and Deivon Smith nearly recorded a triple-double to lift the Red Storm men’s basketball team to its fifth victory

NASSAU, Bahamas (Nov. 22, 2024) – The No. 22/20 St. John's men's basketball team cruised past Virginia, 80-55, on Friday in its final game of the Baha Mar Hoops Championship.

The Red Storm (5-1) became the first non-conference opponent to score 80 or more points on Virginia (3-2) since Gonzaga downed the Cavaliers, 98-75, on Dec. 26, 2020.

Ten different Johnnies found their way in the scoring column, led by RJ Luis Jr., who finished with a game-high 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor. The 6-foot-7 junior wing also recorded a career-high four steals to go with three boards.

Deivon Smith nearly posted a triple-double, recording 10 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. As a team, the Red Storm dished out 19 assists in total while committing just seven turnovers in the contest.

Kadary Richmond also joined Luis and Smith in double figures with 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. The Brooklyn native chipped in four assists and two boards in the win. Zuby Ejiofor produced nine boards, including seven on the offensive glass, to go with eight points, two blocks and a pair of steals against the Cavaliers.

The Red Storm knocked down more than 50 percent of its shots from the floor for the fourth consecutive game and the fifth time in six outings this season. St. John's also sank 10 threes and recorded 40 of its 80 points inside the paint.

St. John's set the tone defensively in the early going, as Ejiofor recorded both of his rejections in the first 90 seconds of the contest. The latter block jumpstarted a fastbreak capped by Luis' 360-degree dunk for the team's first points.

Three minutes later, the Miami product ran down Cavaliers' Elijah Saunders and swatted his layup, sending Smith in the other direction and hitting Richmond for the alley-oop slam with 15:21 remaining. The dunk kicked off a 13-1 run for St. John's as Sadiku Ibine Ayo and Scott each knocked down a triple during the spurt and Simeon Wilcher rattled off five straight points to put the Johnnies ahead 19-8 at 11:12.

The Johnnies held Virginia without a field goal for over five minutes before Andrew Rohde and Taine Murray hit back-to-back threes, followed by a hook shot from Blake Buchanan to slash the deficit to three, 19-16, at the 9:24 mark.

However, the Cavaliers' hot stretch was quickly cooled with an 8:23 scoring drought and 16 consecutive points from the Red Storm with Luis scoring nine. The scoring surge began with Luis' triple before three straight slams from Vince Iwuchukwu, Luis and Smith. Luis then knocked down a pull up jumper and threw down another alley-oop before Smith hit a 3-pointer to send St. John's up 35-16.

The Red Storm took a 13-point lead, 39-26, into the break after Virginia's Ian McKneely completed a four-point play 0.4 seconds remaining.

St. John's expanded its lead to as many as 20 through the first 4:50 of the second half with Scott nailing a 3-pointer and Richmond sinking a hook shot in the paint to go up 50-30.

The Johnnies continued to pour it on over the next seven minutes, as their advantage grew to 25 while holding Virginia to just four made field goals over that stretch. Jaiden Glover registered his first collegiate field goals with a corner 3-pointer at 7:05 before Ejiofor pivoted in the paint for the one-handed floater, giving St. John's its largest lead of the game, 72-43, at 6:01.

Saunders led Virginia with 12 points while Rohde finished with 11 points and McKneely added 10.

St. John's will remain in The Bahamas for a Sunday tilt against Georgia (5-0) at Imperial Arena. Tip-off from Atlantis Paradise Island Resort is slated for 11 a.m. with the live telecast airing on CBS Sports Network.