Zuby Ejiofor poured in 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to help St. John’s pick up an 82-72 win over Xavier on Tuesday night in Cincinnati.
RJ Luis Jr. also had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds while Simeon Wilcher added 15 points off the bench for St. John’s (13-3, 4-1 Big East), which won for the eighth time in nine games. Kadary Richmond and Aaron Scott each supplied 12 points.
The Musketeers (9-7, 1-4) had three scorers in double figures, with Zach Freemantle netting 22 points, Dailyn Swain chipping in 14 and Dayvion McKnight adding 11.
The bigger and stronger Red Storm dominated down low, outscoring Xavier 54-30 in the paint and outrebounding the Musketeers 50-30.
Xavier lost for the fifth time in six games. The typically loyal home crowd began booing the Musketeers with about 8 1/2 minutes remaining in the game and Xavier down by 18. The near-capacity arena was half-empty with over five minutes to go.
St. John’s did most of its damage inside the arc, making only 2 of 16 3-point attempts as part of a 34-for-81 performance from the field (42 percent). The Musketeers shot 36.7 percent overall (22 of 60) and 22.2 percent from long range (4 of 18).
An ice-cold start from Xavier gave the Red Storm the upper hand early, as the Musketeers went 3-for-17 from the floor to open the contest.
St. John’s raced out to leads of 19-8 and 23-10 before taking its largest first-half lead — 14 — at 29-15 on two Deivon Smith free throws.
Trailing 37-25 following a Luis layup with 2:56 remaining before the break, the Musketeers went on a 12-4 run to close the first half, cutting the St. John’s lead to 41-37 by intermission.
The Red Storm stayed in front, though, and they led by at least nine for the game’s final 12:20.
–Field Level Media
