St. Johns Bounces Back; Beat Rutgers
NEW YORK(AP) Paris Horne scored a career-high 27 points on 12-of-13 shooting, and St. John's closed the game on a 9-0 run for a 70-59 victory over Rutgers on Saturday night.
The Red Storm (11-8, 2-5 Big East) led 56-40 with 10 minutes to play only to see the Scarlet Knights (9-11, 0-7) get within 61-59 on a 3-pointer by Jaron Griffin with 2:50 left.
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D.J. Kennedy, who finished 16 points and six assists, then went 6-for-6 from the foul line the rest of the way as St. John's snapped a four-game losing streak. Kennedy finished 10-of-11 from the line and St. John's was 12-for-16 overall.
Freshman Mike Rosario had 17 points for Rutgers, which lost its eighth straight with six of the losses to ranked teams.
Sean Evans scored all 11 of his points in the second half for the Red Storm, who shot 52.9 percent from the field (27-for-51), just the third time this season they shot better than 50 percent.
Justin Burrell had nine points and eight rebounds for St. John's, which finished with a 37-23 advantage on the boards.
Horne, a sophomore guard, bettered his previous career high of 24 points against Connecticut earlier this month. His only miss was a 3-point attempt in the first half, when he scored 20 points.
The Red Storm used a 15-2 run to take a 23-11 lead 7 1/2 minutes into the game. They shot 57.1 percent in taking a 37-26 halftime lead, a percentage made more impressive considering they missed eight of their last nine shots.
Griffin hit two 3s to start a 10-0 run that had Rutgers within 59-54 with 5:45 to go. After a drive by Horne, Rosario scored and Griffin hit the 3 that made it a two-point game and were Rutgers' last points of the game as it missed its last five shots and turned the ball over once.
St. John's has won three straight and five of six against Rutgers.