St. John‘s is on the mountaintop of the Big East for the first time in 40 years.
RJ Luis Jr. scored 21 points and No. 7 St. John’s beat Seton Hall 71-61 to clinch its first outright regular-season Big East title since 1985 on Saturday.
[Related: Mike DeCourcy’s latest NCAA Tournament projections]
The Red Storm (26-4, 17-2) improved to 18-0 at home as they played in front of their third straight sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden and with coach Rick Pitino sporting a white suit for the second straight season.
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St. John’s moved the game to MSG after it was initially scheduled to be played on campus but opted not to cut down the nets to celebrate. After finishing off the win, a montage of highlights played while the team was presented with the trophy for clinching the title as confetti was rained and Pitino gave a brief speech thanking the fans and said: “We’re just getting started.”
Zuby Ejiofor added 17 points and 10 rebounds as the Red Storm shot 43.4% and struggled until the final minutes.
Dylan Addae-Wusu scored 18 for Seton Hall (7-22, 2-16), which is concluding its worst season since 1982-83. Isaiah Coleman added 15 for the Pirates.
Takeaways
Seton Hall: The Pirates have been competitive of late and lost for the third straight game by 10 points or fewer.
St. John’s: Free-throw shooting has been troublesome at times for St. John’s and the Red Storm shot 63.6%.
Key moment
After struggling through most of the first half and taking a four-point lead, St. John’s allowed Seton Hall to get within one point six times before gradually taking control. Luis converted a monstrous one-handed dunk off a Seton Hall turnover for a 59-52 lead with 6:43 left.
Key stat
The Red Storm entered averaging 11 turnovers and finished with 16.
Up next
Seton Hall hosts Creighton on Tuesday. St. John’s visits Marquette on March 8.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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