NEWARK, N.J. (Dec. 31, 2022) – Despite senior center Joel Soriano’s third 20-point effort of the season, the St. John’s men’s basketball suffered a road setback, falling to Seton Hall, 88-66, inside Prudential Center on Saturday.

Soriano matched a career-high with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting to go with 11 rebounds for his NCAA-leading 12th double-double. David Jones scored all 12 of his points in the first half, as the Red Storm junior wing came off the bench for the first time this season. Jones shot 5-for-12 from the field and hit a pair of 3-pointers to go with eight rebounds.

Seton Hall (8-7, 1-3 BIG EAST) was led by Al-Amir Dawes, who scored 22 points and hit five triples. Kadary Richmond finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists while Pirate teammate Tyrese Samuel added 16 points, nine boards and three steals.

St. John’s (11-4, 1-3 BIG EAST) controlled the game early and opened a 10-point lead midway through the first half. Soriano hit his first four shots and capped a 9-0 run with an alley-oop in transition that put the Johnnies ahead 13-6. Jones was responsible for the team’s next five points, sinking his second triple of the game and then finishing a layup through traffic to cap a 14-2 run and send St. John’s ahead 18-8 at the 11:52 mark.

Montez Mathis scored five of his seven points in 51 seconds to help the Johnnies maintain a double-digit advantage, 23-13, with 9:43 to go in the opening stanza. From there, the Pirates answered with a 13-2 run to regain a two-point edge, 33-31, just over four minutes later.

The teams exchanged buckets down the stretch before the Pirates reclaimed a 42-37 advantage at the break. After Mathis evened the ballgame at 37 apiece, Samuel broke the tie with a tip in and Richmond sank a 3-pointer as time expired in the first half.

Soriano (16) and Jones (12) combined for 28 of the Red Storm’s first half points, shooting 12-for-17 (70.6 pct) from the field.

Dawes buried his fifth 3-pointer of the contest to open the second half and Seton Hall never looked back. The triple sparked a 12-2 run that sent the Pirates out to a 54-39 advantage just over four minutes into the stanza.

The Hall shot 54.1 percent (33-61 FG) with seven 3-pointers and built its lead to 25 in the final 20 minutes of action.

Red Storm junior guard Andre Curbelo scored all 10 of his points in the second half and dished out seven assists in the contest.

St. John’s looks to bounce back on Wednesday at Carnesecca Arena when the Johnnies host Marquette at 6:30 p.m.