Al-Amir Dawes scored 19 points, Kadary Richmond added 18 points and 11 rebounds, and visiting Seton Hall overcame a 19-point deficit and dominated the second half in a 68-62 victory over struggling St. John’s on Sunday night in Elmont, N.Y.
The Pirates (17-9, 10-5 Big East) won for the fourth time in five games by outscoring St. John’s 49-24 over the final 23:09 and improved to 5-5 in Quad 1 games.
Dawes and Richmond combined for 24 of Seton Hall’s 39 points in the second half after the Pirates trailed by 12 at halftime. The duo was a combined 7 of 15 after halftime and 11 of 28 overall.
Dre Davis was a game-time decision with an ankle injury and contributed 15 points and seven rebounds in 34 minutes off the bench as the Pirates withstood shooting 37 percent by outscoring St. John’s 32-18 in the paint.
St. John’s (14-12, 6-9) suffered its biggest blown lead of the season and lost for the sixth time in conference play when leading at halftime. The Red Storm also lost for the eighth time in 10 games and heard some boos from fans at the home of the New York Islanders.
Daniss Jenkins led the Red Storm 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting. Joel Soriano returned to the starting lineup after being benched last week at Providence and added 11 of his 13 points in the first half as St. John’s shot 24.2 percent in the second half and a season-worst 33.8 percent overall.
St. John’s scored the game’s first eight points and outscored Seton Hall 13-5 in about a six-minute span to take a 25-14 lead on a jumper by Soriano with 8:11 remaining in the first half.
The Red Storm increased their lead to 38-19 on a basket by Zuby Ejiofor with 3:09 left and held a 41-29 advantage by halftime.
A 3 by Dawes cut it to 41-35 with 17:01 left and Richmond’s jumper made it 44-39 with 11:43 left. Davis’ fastbreak dunk made it 45-43 with 10:21 left.
The Pirates took their first lead at 47-45 when Soriano was called for goaltending on a Dawes layup with 8:13 left. They grew the advantage to 57-53 after Dawes hit a 3 from the top of the key with 4:32 to go.
Richmond then finished it off with a three-point play that made it 61-53 with 3:01 left, and Seton Hall sank seven free throws the rest of the way.
–Field Level Media
