St. John’s balanced offense overpowers Creighton
Reserve Lefteris Liotopoulos led all scorers with a career-high 17 points and Oziyah Sellers added 16 to lead St. John's to a dominant 90-73 Big East win over Creighton on Saturday in Omaha, Neb.
Ian Jackson, Bryce Hopkins and Zuby Ejiofor all finished with 12 points while Dylan Darling rounded out the balanced scoring for St. John's (11-5, 4-1) with 11. Dillon Mitchell contributed eight points and nine rebounds.
Isaac Traudt led the way for Creighton (10-7, 4-2) with 14 points on four 3-pointers, including 11 points in the first half. Blake Harper added 12 points off the bench, all in the second half.
St. John's used an early 6-0 run in the second half, which was capped off by a Bryce Hopkins 3-pointer, to take a 58-37 lead with 17:42 to go.
Later in the half, a Darling 3-pointer gave St. John's a 72-49 cushion. Liotopoulous put the finishing touches on the game for the Red storm, knocking down his fourth and fifth 3-pointers for an 82-56 lead with 5:43 remaining.
St. John's did most of its damage in the first half. With the score tied at 25 with 8:31 left, the visitors used a 18-2 run to jump out to a 43-27 advantage following a Liotopoulos 3-pointer with 3:24 to play.
Sellers was a key contributor to help the Red Storm jump out to a double-digit lead, scoring 14 points on 5-for-6 shooting in the first half. Liotopoulos scored nine points in the first half on 3-for-3 shooting from long distance.
Ejiofor was the main facilitator for St. John's, dishing out five of the team's nine first-half assists.
During the Red Storm's 18-2 run, Creighton was held without a field goal for over five minutes until Fedor Zugic hit a 3-pointer with 2:46 left to cut the deficit to 43-30.
St. John's, on the other hand, made seven of its last nine field-goal attempts to take a 52-34 lead into halftime. The Red Storm outrebounded the Bluejays 24-11 in the first half and 39-26 for the game.
Creighton will look to bounce back Tuesday when it hosts Georgetown, while St. John's hosts Marquette.