St. John’s found some bench scoring to hold off Xavier, 93-84 to go to 14 wins on the season and earn Mike Anderson his 400th career win.
St. John’s earns their first win over Xavier since 2015. St. John’s is 14-8, 8-7 in the Big East, while Xavier drops to 11-4, 4-4 in the Big East.
The game was played at a high pace, but in more of Xavier’s style — dependent on shooting, with St. John’s unable to draw high numbers of touches in the paint or free throws, at least early on. Julian Champagnie and Rasheem Dunn carried things early, but the game looked to be Xavier’s to win — they kept the Red Storm out of the paint and were forcing the Johnnies away from the paint.