St. John’s men’s basketball opens Big East play with comfortable win over DePaul

The Red Storm’s Big East title defense didn’t begin in style at Carnesecca Arena on Tuesday night, but they took care of business in a 79-66 victory over the DePaul Blue Demons to begin conference play with a win for the fifth consecutive season.

DePaul hung around for the first nine minutes, something they couldn’t accomplish in their two uncompetitive matchups with the Red Storm a season ago, before a big St. John’s run swayed momentum in the home team’s direction for good.

After a Kaleb Banks mid-range jumper cut the St. John’s lead to 19-16, the bench trio of Dylan Darling, Ruben Prey, and Lefteris Liotopoulos scored nine straight points before handing off the baton to the starters, who finished off an 18-3 run that gave the Red Storm a 37-19 lead with five minutes remaining in the first half.

Strokes of bad luck (such as a Zuby Ejiofor technical foul midway through the second half) and poor finishing at the rim prevented St. John’s from turning this game into a laugher, but the Red Storm maintained their distance and led by double-digits in the final 11 minutes of play.

Coming off the bench, Dylan Darling shook off an extended shooting slump and looked like a confident and clinical scorer. Darling posted a team-high 17 points off the bench (5-of-9 from the field). Through eight games, Darling has only made one of his 15 three-point attempts this season. On Tuesday night, he was 3-of-5 from three.

Joson Sanon and Ian Jackson were the only other players to score in double figures for St. John’s. Sanon put up 15 points and nine rebounds to nearly record a double-double, and Jackson tallied 10 points despite only playing in 14 minutes of action.

St. John’s will have a three-day turnaround before they travel to Atlanta and face the Kentucky Wildcats (7-4) in the CBS Sports Classic on Saturday, December 20 (12:30 p.m., CBS), which features the much-anticipated coaching duel between Rick Pitino and his former player Mark Pope.