St. John’s Rolls Past Butler, 82-59, at Hinkle Fieldhouse

Wednesday, February 28

Indianapolis, Ind. (Hinkle Fieldhouse)

8:30 p.m.

St. John's University

17-12,9-9Big East

Butler

16-13,7-11Big East

St. John's (NY)

Butler

St. John’s Rolls Past Butler, 82-59, at Hinkle Fieldhouse

2/29/2024 12:10:00 AM | Men's Basketball

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Red Storm wing Glenn Taylor Jr. knocked down a career-high five 3-pointers in 17-point effort on Wednesday

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The St. John's men's basketball team (17-12, 9-9) delivered a dominant performance on Wednesday, rolling to an 82-59 victory over Butler (16-13, 7-11) at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Glenn Taylor Jr. led the way with a season-high 17 points and hit a career-best five 3-pointers to help lift the Red Storm to its third-straight victory.

St. John's sophomore RJ Luis Jr. tallied 15 points, five rebounds and a block in 20 minutes off the bench. Teammate Chris Ledlum rounded out three Johnnies who scored double figures, finishing with 10 points to go with four rebounds and two steals.

For the second consecutive game, the Red Storm distributed the ball well recording 17 assists while limiting its turnovers to just six. Daniss Jenkins delivered a superb performance dishing out a season-high nine assists with only one turnover. The Red Storm's point guard also scored eight points and made two steals. The Johnnies also capitalized on Butler's 15 turnovers converting the miscues into 23 points.

St. John's finished the game shooting 44.3 percent (31-70 FG) from the field and hit nine 3-pointers. The Red Storm shot 11-for-12 (91.7 pct) at the free-throw line.

Early in the first half, the Red Storm used a 7-2 spurt to claim a five-point advantage and would maintain the lead for the final 37 minutes of action. After Posh Alexander scored nine of Butler's first 11 points to make it a two-point game with 15:16 on the clock, St. John's went on a 12-2 run over the next five minutes to take a 25-13 advantage. Zuby Ejiofor capped the surge with five-straight points, which featured his second 3-pointer of the season.

Pierre Brooks II helped Butler chip away at the Red Storm's advantage by hitting three 3-pointers in a span of 1:43. The junior wing got the Bulldogs within 30-22 at the 5:49 mark with his third triple. However, Luis answered with the Johnnies' final five points of the stanza to help St. John's carry a 39-33 lead into the break.

St. John's bench scored 21 of its 39 points in the first half with Luis and Ejiofor scoring seven points each.

The Red Storm heated up early in the second half, hitting 8-of-11 shot attempts as part of an 18-8 run. Jordan Dingle capped the rally with a layup in transition to send St. John's ahead 59-43 at the 13:08 mark. Dingle finished with nine points and matched Taylor with a team-high three steals.

Taylor helped the Red Storm capture all of the game's momentum down the stretch, as the Las Vegas native buried his fourth 3-pointer before setting up Joel Soriano with an alley-oop that put St. John's up 17 with 8:39 to play. Soriano finished with a game-high 13 rebounds and shot a perfect 3-for-3 from the free-throw line in 29 minutes of action.

It was all Red Storm from that point forward with St. John's building its lead as large as 26. The Johnnies' final bucket was a 3-pointer from Taylor to seal the 23-point BIG EAST road win.

St. John's returns to action on Tuesday traveling to Chicago for a matchup with DePaul inside Wintrust Arena. FS1 will carry the national broadcast at 9 p.m. ET.