NEW YORK — Joel Soriano muscled his way to 14 points and 12 rebounds, and fifth-seeded St. John’s took down fourth-seeded Seton Hall 91-72 in the Big East tournament quarterfinals on Thursday.
In Rick Pitino’s first year as coach, St. John’s (20-12) advanced to the Big East semifinals for the first time since winning the title in 2000. The Red Storm will renew their rivalry with top-seeded UConn on Friday.
Six players scored in double figures as the Red Storm won their sixth straight game to continue a late NCAA Tournament push. RJ Luis Jr. had a team-high 18 points with nine rebounds.
Jordan Dingle and Nahiem Alleyne scored 14 points apiece, and Daniss Jenkins and Chris Ledlum both had 11. St. John’s won the rebounding battle by 10, outscored Seton Hall 42-26 in the paint and turned 14 Pirates turnovers into 22 points.
Seton Hall (20-12) will wait to learn its postseason destiny on Sunday.
Al-Amir Dawes had a game-high 22 points and Dylan Addae-Wusu put up 15 for the Pirates. Kadary Richmond tallied 13 points and nine assists.
The Pirates drilled their first four 3-pointers of the game to build a 16-12 lead. They responded to a quick St. John’s flurry when Dre Davis hit a jumper and Dawes scored a transition bucket to make it 21-18.
Then St. John’s ran off eight straight points amid a 13-3 run. Zuby Ejiofor got a friendly roll on a 3-pointer, one of three the Red Storm made in that stretch.
Richmond keyed Seton Hall’s response, his assist and six points helping trim a nine-point deficit to 41-40 with 1:42 to play.
The Red Storm executed a perfect final minute. Soriano hit a midrange jumper, the Red Storm stuffed Richmond at the other end with 3.4 seconds left and Luis sank a pull-up at the buzzer to make it 45-40.
They scored the first six points of the second half for the first double-digit margin of the day. Dingle’s open 3-pointer put the Red Storm 61-47 with 12:48 to play.
After weathering a 9-3 Seton Hall run, St. John’s scored a layup and a 3-pointer off consecutive Pirates turnovers to go up 71-56.
Seton Hall made one more push to get within eight points before missing four straight field-goal tries over a 3:24 scoreless span.
–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media