NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — Trey Alexander had a season-high 31 points but it wasn’t enough as St. John’s built a 13-point halftime lead and hung on for an 80-66 victory over No. 15 Creighton on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
St. John’s improved to 16-12 on the season and 8-9 in BIG EAST play with the Quad 1 win, while Creighton had its four-game win streak snapped and fell to 20-8 (11-6 BIG EAST).
St. John’s used a 10-0 run to build an early 18-8 lead, forcing the Bluejays into a pair of shot clock violations among four early turnovers. Alexander got going to begin the charge, starting a 11-0 run with back-to-back three-pointers before a lay-up from Steven Ashworth and a traditional three-point play from Baylor Scheierman gave CU a 23-22 lead. The Johnnies stormed back with a 12-2 run of their own to move in front 32-25. The Red Storm run reached 17-3, allowing St. John’s to take a 41-28 lead into the locker room.
Daniss Jenkins led SJU with a dozen points at the half, while CU was led by 13 points from Alexander. The Red Storm shot 55.9 percent in the opening 20 minutes, making 19-of-34 shots from the floor.
Alexander scored nine of Creighton’s first 14 points of the second half and Creighton quickly cut SJU’s margin to seven at 51-44. The Bluejay defense picked up to get within five points twice, but four straight Jenkins baskets pushed the Red Storm lead to 72-56 with just under minutes left to end the Bluejay comeback hopes.
Alexander’s 31 points were one shy of his career-high, while Ryan Kalkbrenner tallied 12 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high eight blocks. Also in double-figures with 12 points was Baylor Scheierman.
Jenkins led the Red Storm with 27 points and six assists, while Jordan Dingle had 12 of his 18 points in the second half. The Johnnies had 24 assists against just three turnovers and were perfect in 10 attempts at the free throw line.
Creighton returns to the court on Wednesday at 8 p.m. when it hosts Seton Hall (18-9, 11-5 BIG EAST). The Bluejays edged the Pirates 97-94 in triple-overtime in Newark last month.
NOTES: Creighton played a full game against St. John’s inside Madison Square Garden for the first time since 2015 (a 2020 BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinal game was abandoned at halftime). CU had played all nine other BIG EAST teams inside The Garden since then … Trey Alexander appeared in his 100th career game … Baylor Scheierman has made a three-pointer in 16 straight games, and 74 of the past 75 contests…Creighton has made a three-pointer in 1,013 straight games … Creighton fell behind by double-digits for the first time in 10 games (since Jan. 17 at UConn) … Creighton had two fouls in the opening 20 minutes, its 12th half this season with three fouls or fewer …Ryan Kalkbrenner had eight points or more for the 51st straight game … Ryan Kalkbrenner had at least five blocked shots for the 12th time in his career … Creighton’s seven-game win streak against St. John’s was snapped. The Jays are now 0-3 inside Madison Square Garden against the Red Storm since joining the BIG EAST, but 6-2 at Carnesecca Arena on the SJU campus … Creighton is now 13-5 in the game following a win over a Top 10 opponent … Creighton is now 10-12 inside Madison Square Garden since joining the BIG EAST … Creighton dropped to 17-2 all-time when Trey Alexander scores 20 points or more.
First appeared on gocreighton.com