Aaron Scott scored seven of his 11 points over the final seven minutes of the second half as No. 22 St. John’s survived several choppy stretches before pulling away for a 66-45 victory over visiting Wagner Wednesday night in Queens, N.Y.
Ranked for the first time since January 2019, the Red Storm (3-0) led virtually the entire way but struggled to put away the pesky Seahawks (1-2) until it scored 18 straight points to turn a two-point lead into a 57-37 edge with 5:48 left in the game.
RJ Luis Jr. led the Red Storm with 13 points, but Scott hit three big shots down the stretch after missing Saturday’s win over Quinnipiac and tweaking his ankle in practice on Monday.
Deivon Smith and Brady Dunlap added nine points apiece as the Red Storm shot 50 percent from the floor (21 of 42) but missed 12 of its 30 free-throw attempts.
Javier Ezquerra scored 10 points to lead Wagner, the Northeast Conference’s co-preseason favorite. The Seahawks shot a dreadful 29.1 percent overall (16 of 55), went 5-of-24 from 3-point range and committed 16 turnovers in their second loss to a ranked team this season.
Wagner committed 10 fouls in the first 10:02 minutes of the game, but St. John’s only sank eight of its first 13 free throw attempts and held an 18-12 lead on two fouls shots by Simeon Wilcher.
The Seahawks trailed 20-18 after a 3-pointer by Ezquerra, but St. John’s countered with a 10-2 run for a 30-20 lead after Wilcher’s layup with 2:54 remaining in the first half.
Wagner trailed 31-22 at halftime but pulled within 33-30 on a jumper by Ja’Kair Sanchez that capped an 8-0 run with 14:57 left.
The Red Storm appeared to start pulling away after scoring five straight points, but the Seahawks still hung around and trailed 39-37 on a deep 3-pointer from Ezquerra with 10:54 left.
St. John’s finally broke away from there. Smith started the run with a triple at the 9:54 mark and another trey by Scott made it 54-37 with 6:38 remaining. Dunlap’s 3-point play capped the run, and Scott added two more buckets during another 8-0 flurry that made it 65-40 with 1:50 to go.
–Field Level Media
