St. John’s struggles from deep, at line in loss to Creighton
Head coach Chris Mullin of the St. John's Red Storm complains to the official during a men's basketball game at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017. Credit: Steven Ryan
OMAHA, Neb. — Khyri Thomas nearly had a triple-double, Marcus Foster had 18 points and Creighton beat St. John’s 82-68 on Tuesday night.
Thomas scored 14 and tied career highs with 12 rebounds and seven assists, Isaiah Zierden had 12 points and Justin Patton added eight with nine rebounds.
Foster scored five points during an 11-0 game-opening run and the Bluejays never trailed. Creighton (23-7, 10-7 Big East) led 43-30 at the break and took a 16-point lead when Zierden hit a 3-pointer with 18:08 to play. Malik Ellison made a layup and then hit back-to-back 3s to trim St. John’s deficit to five with 9:36 left, but the Bluejays scored 10 of the next 13 points to make it 68-56 nearly three minutes later and led by at least eight the rest of the way.
Shamorie Ponds scored 16 for St. John’s (13-17, 7-10). The Red Storm made just 6 of 25 from 3-point range and shot 47 percent (8 of 17) from the free-throw line. Creighton hit 18 of 22 foul shots.
The Bluejays have a one-game lead over fourth-place Seton Hall in the conference standings and can earn a first-round bye in the Big East Tournament with a win at Marquette (17-11, 8-8) in their regular-season finale on Saturday.
