Field Level Media
Jan 23, 2018
Marcus Foster, Khyri Thomas and Toby Hegner combined for almost all of Creighton's scoring Tuesday night as the Bluejays dumped St. John's 68-63 in a Big East Conference matchup at Carnesecca Arena in New York.
Foster paced Creighton (16-5, 6-3 Big East) with 24 points, while Thomas added 19 and Hegner scored 16 points. The trio combined for all 11 of the Bluejays' 3-pointers. Just three other players contributed to the scoring for Creighton, and they managed a total of nine points.
Justin Simon scored 17 points and Tariq Owens added 14 to pace St. John's (10-11, 0-9). The Red Storm trailed by as many as 16 points early in the second half before working their way back into contention, but they couldn't avoid their ninth straight loss -- all in conference play.
St. John's pulled within 65-61 with 38.8 seconds remaining on a layup by Bashir Ahmed, who finished the night with 11 points. Simon converted a reverse layup with 15.3 seconds left to draw the Red Storm within 66-63.
However, Davion Mintz connected on both ends of a one-and-one with 13.2 seconds on the clock to secure the win for Creighton.
Neither team could find a rhythm in the first 10 minutes. At one point, the clubs combined to make only 6 of 29 attempts from the field. The Bluejays finally heated up, though, using a 25-10 run to grab a 36-21 advantage when Hegner stroked a 3-pointer with 1:55 left in the half.
Creighton settled for a 36-25 halftime lead that it promptly stretched to 45-29 when Foster drilled a trey with 16:15 remaining. Although the Bluejays' level of play fell off after that, the margin was too much for St. John's to overcome.
The Bluejays finished the evening at 23 of 48 from the field (47.9 percent) and they converted 11 of 27 from the 3-point arc (40.7 percent) while canning 11 of 13 free throws. The Red Storm were 23 of 56 from the floor (41.1 percent) and 12 of 15 at the line, but they hit just 5 of 18 3-point attempts (27.8 percent).
--Field Level Media