It was business as usual in Queens for the St. John’s basketball team as they continued its perfect start to the season with a dominating 90-59 victory over Colgate
The No. 13 Johnnies (3-0) used a 23-4 run end spanning the end of the first half and start of second half – 6:37 of game time – to turn a six-point lead into a 25-point margin and sprint through the finish line.
"I know the final score doesn't warrant this statement I'm going to make, but I was really nervous going into this basketball game because of the way [Colgate] runs their offense," Rick Pitino said.
Ian Jackson, who finished with a team-high 17 points, had nine points in the 11-0 spurt to enter the halftime locker room including a coast-to-coast layup with as the buzzer sounded on the first half.
Jackson added a triple in the 10-4 beginning to the second half, but it was Tounde Yessoufou who jumpstarted things with five points, finishing with 15 points.
The lead only grew for the Red Storm, who led by as many as 35 points in the victory.
Keyshawn Hall also added 17 points for the Johnnies while Quinn Ellis continued to be the cerebral point guard that Rick Pitino has raved about with six points, six rebounds, nine assists, and four steals.
St. John’s built a 15-point lead, 34-19, with 7:22 left in the first half but Colgate (0-3) made a 13-4 run to get right back in the game behind three triples, cutting the lead to six which led to the Red Storm surge.
"We had a good last three minutes [of the first half]," Ellis explained. "And then, for us, it's important for us to come out of the locker room with the right maturity and the right mentality and that's what we did in the last two games and I think that's helped us keep your lead and finish teams off early,"
Center Ruben Prey put together the best showing of his season with 11 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks – all season-highs – after only registering just two points in five minutes during the first half due to foul trouble.
Lefteris Liotopoulos continued his strong off the bench with 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting from downtown.
The Johnnies will face its first legit challenge of the season on Sunday evening (7:00 p.m. ET, Peacock) against Syracuse (2-1) inside Madison Square Garden, the first meeting between the old conference rivals since 2022.
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