The St. John’s basketball team flexed its muscles in its Big East Tournament opener, leaving little doubt against No. 9 seed Butler in its 78-57 victory to return to the semifinals for second straight season.
Rick Pitino’s top-seeded Red Storm rattled off a 15-0 run early in the first half and never looked back, showing quite a different performance from its previous two games against Butler winning by eight and six points respectively.
“We didn't want this game to be close at all,” Aaron Scott said. “So, the first four minutes we emphasized that.”
Scott had his best game since he caught fire in St. John’s road matchup against Villanova in February, which happens to be the last game the Johnnies lost. He finished with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
“I told the guys that a five-plus performance is a Michael Jordan performance, and we were a four-star tonight, which was good enough to win,” Rick Pitino said.
Pitino watched his standout wing, RJ Luis, follow up his Big East Player of the Year Award with a superb effort of 20 points and seven rebounds while the Johnnies outscored Butler by 32 points with Luis on the floor.
St. John’s took an 11-point lead, 37-26, into halftime and kept a stranglehold on its advantage as Butler could only get as close as eight points in the second half before the Red Storm ripped off a 17-3 run that decided the game.
Kadary Richmond, fresh off the first triple-double in program history since Ron Artest, flirted with the impressive feat again but sat for the final 3:04 with 15 points, eight rebounds, and nine assists.
“I feel like I'm just making the right play, just going out there, playing basketball and having fun freely,” Richmond said. “Guys are making shots.”
St. John's only got four points from Zuby Ejiofor but the combination off the bench of Lefteris Liotopulos, Vince Iwuchukwu, and Sadiku Ibine Ayo had 17 points.
St. John’s will play either Xavier or Marquette in the Big East Tournament Semifinals (6:30 p.m. ET, FOX). two teams which the Johnnies defeated twice this season.