Daniss Jenkins had a team-high 17 points and seven assists while Joel Soriano and Chris Ledlum each posted double-doubles Tuesday night for host St. John’s, which never trailed in beating Butler 86-70 in a Big East game.
Soriano finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds while Ledlum had 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Red Storm (10-4, 2-1 Big East) which had six players score in double figures as they won for the fourth time in five games.
RJ Luis Jr. scored 14 points while reserve Brady Dunlap, a little-used freshman, set season highs in points (13) and minutes (28). Fellow backup Naheim Alleyne added 10 points.
DJ Davis scored 25 points while Posh Alexander and Pierre Brooks had 11 points apiece for Butler (10-4, 1-2), which has lost two straight. Alexander, a Brooklyn native who played the previous three seasons at St. John’s, added six rebounds and five assists.
Alexander’s layup tied the score at 19-19 — the fifth tie of the first half — with 11:20 left before St. John’s mounted an 11-3 run. Butler responded with a 9-2 surge and pulled within 32-31 on Jalen Thomas’ layup with 4:28 remaining, but the Red Storm scored 13 of the final 20 points of the half to take a 45-38 lead into the locker room.
Brooks and Davis sandwiched 3-pointers around a Ledlum jumper to open the second half for Butler, but St. John’s scored the next seven points to begin a 12-3 run. Dunlap’s 3-pointer with 14:27 left gave the Red Storm a 59-47 lead.
Butler scored the next six points, after which the Bulldogs went scoreless from the field during a 6:50 stretch in which Luis Jr. scored six unanswered points to begin a 15-4 run for St. Johns. Davis and Brooks combined to score eight straight points but Ledlum hit a 3-pointer and Alleyne followed with a layup for the Red Storm, whose lead never slipped below double digits the rest of the way.
–Field Level Media
