Top-Seeded St. John’s Defeats Ninth-Seeded Butler in BIG EAST Tournament Quarterfinal, 78-57

Thursday, March 13

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

12 p.m.

St. John's University

28-4,18-2Big East

No. 9 Butler

14-19,6-14Big East

Butler

St. John's (NY)

Top-Seeded St. John’s Defeats Ninth-Seeded Butler in BIG EAST Tournament Quarterfinal, 78-57

3/13/2025 4:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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The Red Storm men’s basketball team advances to the semifinals for the second-straight season; St. John’s will play winner of No. 4 Xavier and No. 5 Marquette

NEW YORK – The top-seeded St. John's men's basketball team (28-4) dominated Butler (14-19) in Thursday's BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinal, 78-57, to advance to the semifinals for the second straight year.

The Red Storm took a commanding 18-3 lead out of the gate, including a decisive 15-0 run, and never looked back in Thursday's wire-to-wire quarterfinal win. It marked the largest margin of victory for the Johnnies in a BIG EAST Tournament game in 15 years since St. John's downed Connecticut by 22, 73-51, in the opening round of the 2010 edition of the tournament.

BIG EAST Player of the Year RJ Luis Jr. lived up to the billing in his first contest since winning the award, finishing with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting. The junior has now logged 12 20-point performances this season, including four straight and six in his last eight games.

One game after recording the first triple-double by a St. John's player in the 21^st century, Kadary Richmond nearly tallied his second in a row recording 15 points, a game-high nine assists and eight rebounds.

Aaron Scott turned in a 15-point outing that included three made triples and shot 60.0 percent (6-10 FG) from the floor. The senior wing also recorded five steals at The World's Most Famous Arena, which were the most by a St. John's player in a BIG EAST Tournament game since Marcus Hatten registered five steals on March 6, 2002, in a 64-58 win over Seton Hall.

The Red Storm controlled the game down low, dominating Butler in points in the point, 44-18, while also outscoring the Bulldogs 15-0 on the fastbreak.

The Johnnies opened the scoring with a triple from Scott, but Butler knotted the score before the Red Storm took over the lead it never relinquished. Coming out of the under-16 media timeout, the Red Storm took advantage on a third opportunity after grabbing a pair of offensive rebounds that culminated with a corner triple from Luis off a long toss from Richmond. The scoring stretch expanded to 15 straight points for the Johnnies, as Luis buried his second 3-pointer to open an 18-3 lead forcing a Butler timeout. The Red Storm defense held the Bulldogs scoreless for 5:53 and forced four turnovers during that span.

Sadiku Ibine Ayo drilled a long-range jumper from the corner that was directly followed by a finish at the rim in traffic from Wilcher as the Red Storm opened its largest lead of the opening half, 25-8, with 8:09 left to play.

After Butler started to cut into the deficit, Lefteris Liotopoulos provided energy off the bench. The freshman guard finished a driving lay-up before intercepting an in-bounds pass for another easy lay-in. Liotopoulos scored six of the final eight points for the Red Storm in opening half, tying a season high.

St. John's entered the locker room with a double-digit lead, 37-26.

In the latter stanza, the top-seeded Red Storm continued to pad its lead, opening the half with a 12-2 run. As the Johnnies maintained control throughout the stanza, Luis rattled the rim with a putback slam before feeding Vince Iwuchukwu for a thunderous jam. A 14-1 St. John's run extended the lead to as many as 22, 56-34. The scoring surge was capped by a 3-pointer on a second chance opportunity from Deivon Smith.

Scott continued turning St. John's defense into offense and cashed in on back-to-back triples to bring the advantage to as many as 23, 74-51, with 3:13 remaining on the clock.

St. John's will return to action on Friday in the BIG EAST Tournament semifinal contest against the winner of fourth-seeded Xavier and fifth-seeded Marquette at 6:30 p.m. on FOX.