No. 25/24 St. John’s Cruises Past Butler for Seventh Straight Victory, 92-70

Wednesday, January 28

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

7 p.m.

St. John's University

16-5,9-1Big East

Butler

13-8,4-6Big East

Butler

St. John's (NY)

No. 25/24 St. John’s Cruises Past Butler for Seventh Straight Victory, 92-70

1/28/2026 10:43:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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The Red Storm men’s basketball team has won 25 of its last 27 BIG EAST regular season games

NEW YORK – The No. 25/24 St. John's men's basketball team earned a wire-to-wire victory over Butler, 92-70, on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.

The Johnnies have now won seven-straight contests and improved to 9-1 in BIG EAST for the second consecutive year. It marks just the second the Red Storm has won nine of its first 10 league games since 1984-85.

St. John's (16-5, 9-1 BIG EAST) has also earned victories in 25 of its last 27 BIG EAST regular season games, dating back to the start of 2025. The Johnnies are one of just three NCAA Division I programs to win 25 league games in its last 27 contests, joining Akron (25) and Duke (26).

After starting 0-for-7 from deep, St. John's shot 9-for-13 (69.2%) from 3-point territory for the remainder of the game. The Red Storm also shot an efficient 56.3 percent (36-63 FG) from the field before 14,361 fans on Wednesday night in Midtown Manhattan

Dillon Mitchell delivered his third double-double in the last four appearances, tallying 14 points and a season-high 13 rebounds. The senior forward added four assists and matched a season-high with three blocks. Over the last four games, Mitchell has averaged 14.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.

St. John's sophomore guard Ian Jackson netted a team-high 18 points and shot a perfect 5-for-5 from the charity stripe. Zuby Ejiofor tallied 15 points on 66.7 percent (6-9 FG) shooting to go with six boards, a game-high five assists and three blocks.

Red Storm sophomore Joson Sanon poured in 13 points, knocking down all three of his attempts from deep and finished 5-for-7 (71.4%) from the floor.

Butler's Michael Ajayi led all scorers with 19 points and added 11 rebounds at The Mecca.

The Red Storm ripped off a 12-2 scoring run out of the gate, highlighted by Bryce Hopkins tossing an alley-oop to Mitchell in transition. Sanon then finished through traffic as the early advantage expanded to as many as 14, 20-6, at the 11:11 mark in the first half.

The Bulldogs (13-8, 4-6 BIG EAST) pulled back within five, 28-23, with just under five minutes remaining in the half. However, the Johnnies quickly answered by connecting on five-straight attempts from 3-point territory. Jackson knocked down a pair during the stretch and Sanon bookended the hot shooting streak from beyond-the-arc as the St. John's lead sprung to 14 points, 43-29, heading into halftime.

In the latter frame, the Johnnies steadily pulled away en route to its second 20+ point BIG EAST victory this season. Sanon found his stroke from downtown sinking a pair of triples as the cushion grew to 21, 71-50, with 8:27 remaining.

St. John's advantage grew to as large as 29 late in the second half. Jackson nailed his third 3-pointer of the night before Sadiku Ibine Ayo flushed one from deep to give the Red Storm a 92-63 lead with 1:38 remaining.

St. John's will have the weekend off before returning to action in Chicago on Tuesday when it takes on DePaul for an 8 p.m. ET tip-off at Wintrust Arena.