St. John’s Narrowly Falls to No. 22/20 Creighton
OMAHA, Neb. (Jan. 13, 2024) – In a game that saw seven ties and 18 lead changes, the St. John’s men’s basketball team (12-5, 4-2) narrowly fell to No. 22/20 Creighton (13-4, 4-2), 66-65, inside CHI Health Center Omaha on Saturday.
Creighton’s Trey Alexander sank a pair of free-throws with 9.3 seconds on the clock to put the Bluejays ahead by one. On the Red Storm’s final possession, Daniss Jenkins’ jumper from the paint rimmed out before Jordan Dingle grabbed the offensive rebound and got off another shot attempt that was off the mark at the buzzer.
Joel Soriano led the Red Storm with his 10th double-double of the season. The 6-foot-11 center finished with 13 points, shooting 5-for-11 from the field and 3-for-3 at the free-throw line to go with 11 rebounds. Jenkins finished with 11 points and five assists.
The Red Storm’s bench produced 29 points with Dingle leading the reserves with nine points. RJ Luis Jr. added eight points and six rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench.
Creighton was led by Ryan Kalkbrenner who scored a game-high 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Teammate Baylor Scheierman finished with 17 points but was limited to 1-for-6 shooting from distance. He also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds in 40 minutes of action.
The Johnnies erased an early six-point deficit with a 14-2 run to take its first advantage of the game less than eight minutes into the contest. St. John’s led by as many as six points in the opening frame, going up 18-12 at 11:35 with a bucket from freshman guard Simeon Wilcher.
The Johnnies and Bluejays went back and forth over the next several minutes. The lead changed sides six more times and neither team led by more than three until the Bluejays finished the half on a 10-4 spurt to carry a 35-30 advantage into the break.
St. John’s defense held the Bluejays to a 6-for-23 (26.1 pct) shooting effort from beyond the arc in the first half. The Red Storm bench also scored 16 of its 30 points in the first half with Dingle knocking down all three field goal attempts.
Soriano opened the second half scoring seven straight points for the Johnnies before a Luis layup over Kalkbrenner tied the game at 39 with 17:06 remaining. After the Bluejays took a three-point lead, the Johnnies drained six of its next nine shots. Nahiem Alleyne, Zuby Ejiofor and Chris Ledlum registered four points each as part of a 14-2 run that put the Johnnies up by nine, 56-47, with 9:29 to play.
Kalkbrenner responded by starting and ending a 12-2 run that put Creighton back ahead by one with 5:46 remaining. The 7-foot-1 center shot 6-for-11 from the field and blocked four shots.
The lead changed sides seven more times down the stretch before Alexander hit the decisive free throws to put Creighton up 66-65.
Steven Ashworth was the third Bluejay to score double figures as he finished with 11 points.
The Red Storm returns to action on Tuesday against Seton Hall inside Prudential Center. FS1 will carry the national telecast at 8:30 p.m. from Newark.