St. John’s beat Florida State for best start since 2018-19
Joel Soriano scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and St. John’s beat Florida State 93-79 in an Orange Bowl Basketball Classic doubleheader on Saturday at Sunrise, Fla.
Reserve Dylan Addae-Wusu’s 3-pointer with 12:06 before halftime broke a tie at 18 and the Red Storm (11-1) led the rest of the way. St. John’s outscored Florida State 30-19 for the remainder of the half and was up 48-37 at intermission.
St. John’s all but sealed it starting the second half with a 13-4 run for its first 20-point lead of the contest at 61-41. Chandler Jackson’s 3 got Florida State within 77-70 with 5:35 left but the Red Storm closed it out outscoring Florida State 16-9.
Addae-Wusu scored 20 points for St. John’s, David Jones 16 and Andre Curbelo 14. St. John’s shot 33 for 63 (52.4%) and made 19 of 23 (82.6%) foul shots.
It was the first-ever meeting between the two schools. St. John’s has won three of its last four contests with ACC opponents, including a 76-69 overtime win earlier this season against Syracuse at Barclays Center to take home the 2022 Empire Classic title. Providence 71, Seton Hall 67: At Newark, N.J., Bryce Hopkins had 24 points in Providence’s Big East Conference victory. Ed Croswell’s dunk with 2:55 remaining was the last field goal for Providence, giving the Friars a 65-58 lead. They closed out the game going 6-for-6 from the line.
Hopkins added 10 rebounds for the Friars (9-3). Croswell scored 21 points while going 8 of 12 and 5 of 9 from the free throw line, and added nine rebounds and three blocks. Noah Locke added 10 points.
Northwestern 83, DePaul 45: At Evanston, Ill., Chase Audige scored a career-high 28 points and Northwestern hit 13 3-pointers in posting the win over its cross-town rival.
The in-state rivals played for the first time since 2019.
Northwestern leads the all-time series 22-14 and has won five of the last six meetings.
The Wildcats (8-2) came into the game boasting the seventh-ranked defense in the country at 56.8 points allowed per game and held the Blue Demons to almost a dozen points under that average. Northwestern took a 39-26 lead at the half and held DePaul to 19 secondhalf points, starting the second half with a 12-2 run to push its lead to 51-28 six minutes into the half.
State
St. Francis 67, Hartford
51: At West Hartford, Rob Higgins scored 20 points as Saint Francis Brooklyn beat Hartford. Higgins shot 6 for 11 (3 for 5 from 3-point range) and 5 of 6 from the free throw line for the Terriers (5-6).
Josiah Harris added 11 points while going 5 of 9 from the field, and they also had seven rebounds. Larry Moreno shot 4 for 7, including 2 for 3 from beyond the arc to finish with 10 points.