RJ Luis Jr., Brady Dunlap and Simeon Wilcher combined to score 43 points in the second half Saturday afternoon for host St. John’s, which fended off an upset bid by Quinnipiac and pulled away to earn a 96-73 victory.
Luis Jr. had 16 points in the second half and finished with 24 points – his most since transferring to St. John’s prior to last season. He also had 13 rebounds in his third double-double for the Red Storm and his first since he had 16 points and 14 rebounds in a 75-72 loss to Providence on Feb. 13.
Dunlap scored 14 of his career-high 20 points after halftime while Wilcher collected 13 of his 14 points in the final 20 minutes as the Red Storm outscored Quinnipiac 61-34.
Deivon Smith added 13 points and 10 assists for St. John’s, which is 2-0 for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons.
Ryan Mabrey scored a team-high 17 points for Quinnipiac (1-2), the preseason favorite to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Paul Otieno had 12 points while Jaden Zimmerman finished with 11 points for the Bobcats.
Quinnipiac led for the final 14:10 of the first half and opened its biggest lead at 36-28 on a pair of free throws by Amarri Monroe with 2:40 left. St. John’s began its comeback by scoring seven of the final 10 points of the half, including a 3-pointer by Dunlap that narrowed the Bobcats’ lead to 39-35.
The Red Storm scored the first five points of the second half and took the lead on Wilcher’s layup with 18:32 left. Quinnipiac took the lead once more and generated one more tie as the teams traded baskets on four consecutive trips before Wilcher’s dunk gave St. John’s the lead for good at 45-43 and started a 14-4 run.
Quinnipiac mounted its final comeback bid when Zimmerman hit a 3-pointer and Otieno drained a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to 57-52 with 12:09 left before Dunlap scored eight straight points to spark a game-ending 39-21 run. The Red Storm opened their biggest lead at 94-66 on Lefteris Liotopoulos’ 3-pointer with 1:53 remaining.
–Field Level Media
