Oziyah Sellers scored a season-high 24 points as host St. John’s pulled away in the second half of its wire-to-wire 92-68 victory over struggling Marquette Tuesday night in New York.
Sellers surpassed his season high set in Las Vegas against Baylor on Nov. 25. The senior guard finished three shy of his career high set last Jan. 25 for Stanford against Florida State.
Sellers shot 9 of 16 and made four 3s for his third 20-point game with St. John’s. His showing helped the Red Storm (12-5, 5-1 Big East) earn their third straight double-digit win since shooting 28.2% and blowing a 10-point lead in their 77-71 home loss to Providence on Jan. 3.
Zuby Ejiofor added 22 as St. John’s shot 50.8 percent and outrebounded Marquette 39-26. Bryce Hopkins contributed 10 of his 12 in the second half when the Red Storm outscored Marquette 52-34.
The Golden Eagles (6-12, 1-6) surpassed their loss total from last season. They hung around in the first half before getting dominated in the second.
Chase Ross paced Marquette with 20 points and freshman Nigel James Jr. followed up a 31-point showing against Villanova on Saturday by contributing 17.
The Golden Eagles shot 46.9% and committed 19 turnovers.
Marquette played without fourth-leading scorer Ben Gold due to an ankle injury the forward sustained in last week’s win over Xavier.
After getting out to a 15-4 lead in the opening minutes, the Red Storm allowed the Golden Eagles to hang around throughout the first half. Two free throws by Sellers opened an 11-point lead with 10:26 left, but the Red Storm frequently let the lead slip to five and settled in for a 40-34 lead by halftime.
The Red Storm expanded their lead to 53-42 when Sellers sank an off-balance 3 off an inbounds pass following an offensive rebound with 13:17 left and started putting things away a few minutes later.
Hopkins hit a difficult layup for a 61-47 lead with 10:36 left after Ross threw away an inbounds pass, Sellers hit a jumper for a 19-point lead a little over two minutes later and Dillon Mitchell dunked to cap a 13-0 run that hiked the lead to 70-47 with 7:26 left.
–Field Level Media
