St. John's @ Creighton preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 30, 2019 ) St. John's 83, Creighton 67

Creighton will likely have a short stay in the Top 25 regardless of it does in Saturday's Big East game against visiting St. John's. The No. 22 Bluejays threw out a rare clunker, scoring a season-low 56 points, including 20 in the second half, in a loss to Providence on Wednesday and will look to regroup against the Red Storm, who have lost five of their last six games.

Not much went right for Creighton, which shot poorly against the zone defense, got outrebounded by a wide margin, got burned at the 3-point line, and received zero points from their bench against the Friars. Throw in another poor outing by sophomore guard Marcus Zegarowski, who has as many games in single digits (four) as he does in double figures in the last eight contests, and the chances of winning the Big East dropped considerably as the Bluejays fell three games behind No. 13 Seton Hall and one behind No. 12 Villanova - a team it handled by 15 points a week ago. "They went zone and that's kind of when we got stuck in the mud," coach Greg McDermott told the media. "It disrupted our pace some. Our numbers against the zone have been really good but they weren't tonight." Junior guard Rasheem Dunn will look to continue his solid play in Big East games, which has included averaging 14.1 points, as the Red Storm try for their first conference win over a team other than DePaul.

TIME: 6 p.m. ET. TV: CBS Sports Network

ABOUT ST. JOHN'S (13-10, 2-8 Big East): Julian Champagnie got his first chance to start in nearly a month in last week's loss to Georgetown and the freshman made the most of it with his second career double-double. The native of Brooklyn, who leads the Red Storm in rebounding and is second among freshman in the Big East to Villanova's Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, registered 14 points, 10 rebounds and three steals in playing 29 minutes - his most since November. Champagnie will be in search of back-to-back games in double figures for the first time in Big East play, something he accomplished five times in non-conference games.

ABOUT CREIGHTON (17-6, 6-4): Mitch Ballock doesn't struggle often from the 3-point line, but when he does, the Bluejays usually lose. The junior, who was 10th in Division I entering Friday in 3-point percentage (45.0), was in a zone during the four-game win streak by making 51.5 percent, but that came to an end with a 2-of-9 performance against Providence. In Creighton's 17 wins, Ballock is shooting 48 percent from deep but that number drops to 31.5 percent in their six losses.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. The Bluejays have made 3,004 3-pointers since McDermott took over as coach in 2010-11, the second most over that span to Belmont (3,172).

2. The Red Storm snapped a six-game losing streak in the series by taking both meetings from the Bluejays last season by 15 and 16 points, respectively.

3. Creighton's bench, which has averaged 14.2 points this season, hadn't been held scoreless in a game since 1986.

PREDICTION: Creighton 84, St. John's 74