New York-RJ Luis Jr. got 20 points when top seeds St. John’s used major runs in both halves and never dragged in a victory 78-57 over the ninth-seeded Butler in the quarter final in the Big East tournament on Thursday afternoon.
The sixth ranked red storm (28-4) won its sixth straight, advanced to the semi-finals for the second straight season and will meet Marquette or Xaver in the first semi-final Friday. The game was tied once and the red storm led for the last 37:18 to move on to the semi -finals in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1999 and 2000.
One day after becoming emotional in a ceremony to accept the Big East Player of the Year award, Luis made 8 out of 18 shots and helped St. John’s to improve to 10-0 at Madison Square Garden this season and 19-0 in games played in New York City.
Kadary Richmond added 15 to go with nine assists and eight returns. Aaron Scott also contributed 15 points with five steals when Red Storm shot 47.2 percent.
After he never released in his opening round over Providence, never recovered (14-19) from an early deficit and saw Jahmyl Telfort and Pierre Brooks II produce silent exhibitions by walking a combined 4-for-20 from the floor.
Patrick McCaffery led the bulldogs with 16 points, but Telfort was 11 and Brooks was limited to five on 1-of-10 shooting from the floor.
Butler shot 34.5 percent, incorrectly on 21 out of 30 3-point attempts and committed 15 sales.
Finley Bizjack added 10 for Butler before leaving an ankle injury just over five minutes into the second half.
Luis hit two 3’s and got eight points when St. John’s got 15 straight points and opened an 18-3 lead on his corner 3 with 12:29 left. Butler made a small tooth with Luis resting and lowered the deficit to 31-21 on a basket by Boden Kapke with 4:23 left.
After McCaffery hit a 3 to reduce the deficit to 33-24 with 2:32, the red storm kept a 37-26 lead at half time.
Bizjack’s basket moved Butler within 39-31 less than two minutes into the second half, but St. John’s ripped off 10 straight for a 49-31 lead on a layout of Luis with 15:29 left.
After Butler lowered the deficit to 56-40, Luis met a reverse arrangement and a jumper in the lane to push the lead to 64-47 with just under seven minutes left to substantially manage it.
-Larry Fleisher, Field Level Media
