Villanova surges past St. John's

Published May 02, 2016

Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Daniel Ochefu scored 21 points with nine rebounds and five blocks to help No. 4 Villanova surge past St. John's, 105-68, at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon.

JayVaughn Pinkston netted 18 points with six boards and Dylan Ennis chipped in with 17 for the Wildcats (29-2, 16-2 Big East), who closed their regular season with 12 straight wins.

"I think we can beat anyone in the country and I think we can be beat by a lot of teams in the country," said Villanova coach Jay Wright. "I mean, we almost just lost to Creighton. We have a really good team but not so good that if we don't play our best we can get beat."

Villanova enters the Big East Tournament as the No. 1 seed, while St. John's will be seeded fifth.

"Villanova played lights out," said St. John's coach Steve Lavin. "There's a reason they're 29-2 and (have an NCAA Tournament) No. 1 seed all but locked up."

Rysheed Jordan led the Red Storm (21-10, 10-8) with 21 points and Phil Greene IV notched 16 points in the setback.

Villanova was down by double digits early, but it chipped away at the deficit and grabbed a 50-46 lead at the half.

Jordan's 3-pointer cut the Red Storm's deficit to four with 13 1/2 minutes left, then the Wildcats clamped down on defense and treated the home faithful to a blowout by outscoring their opponent 43-10 the rest of the way.

Ochefu scored nine straight points during the initial burst for Villanova, and Ryan Arcidiacono made it a 20-point spread on a layup with nine minutes to play.

Greene netted seven points during a 16-5 run for St. John's to open the game. The Wildcats used a 16-3 run later in the half to turn a 10-point deficit into a three-point lead with under four minutes left in the first. Darrun Hilliard capped the scoring in the half with a jumper to give the Wildcats a four-point edge at the break.

Game Notes

Villanova honored the 1995 Big East Tournament champion team during the game ... St. John's had its four-game winning streak snapped ... Villanova shot 56 percent from the floor ... The Wildcats outrebounded St. John's 37-26 ... The Nova bench held a 28-8 advantage over the Red Storm's reserves.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/villanova-surges-past-st-johns