Creighton gets past St. John’s, 68-63

It feels as if St. John’s is close to snapping their now nine-game losing streak.

The last few games, including Tuesday night against Creighton, they keep coming up close. The only problem It is just that close is just not good enough, especially in the Big East where the idea of eeking out a win is tough.

On that note, St. John’s hit the court in Queens, playing host to the high flying Bluejays of Creighton who hoped to walk away from Carnesecca Arena with a win to keep the pace near the top of the conference standings. St. John’s, meanwhile, was just trying to dig themselves out of the hole that they’ve dug themselves into so far in conference play. In the end the Johnnies came up short once more, falling to Creighton by a score of 68-63 and dropping to 0-9 in conference play. The Bluejays improved 6-3 in conference play.

For a moment, it felt as if Creighton was going to pull away with this game. At the end of the first half, they were sitting on a healthy lead of 11 and clicking on both sides of the ball.

Then the second half came and St. John’s woke up, actually outscoring Creighton over the span of the second half 38-32. Oddly enough, even though Creighton let St. John’s squeak back into this one, the Blue Jays actually had a better second half in terms of shooting with a rate of 57.9% over the course of the second half. They eased off a bit but still found ways to be extremely effective. Having Marcus Foster take over games helps a lot too. Creighton, however, had trouble taking care of the ball, with 16 turnovers to St. John’s five. Those 16 turnovers led to St. John’s getting 17 points.

Foster led all scorers with a lovely 24 point game. Joining him in the scoring conversation for the Bluejays was Khyri Thomas with 19 points and Toby Hegner who finished the night with 16 points.

As a team, Creighton shot the ball at a rate of 48% from the floor, 41% from three point range, and 85% from the foul line. They also out-rebounded St. John’s to a tune of 36 total rebounds to St. John’s 24 over the span of the game.

On the St. John’s side of things, the leading scored was Justin Simon with 17 points and was just one rebound shy of having a double-double. Joining his efforts were Tariq Owens with 14 and Bashir Ahmed with 11.

As a team, St. John’s shot the ball at a rate of 41% from the floor, 28% from three point range, and 80% from the foul line.

So here we at this juncture of the season, two teams going in divergent paths: one up, and the other further down. There is still a chance that St. John’s does start to string together some wins, but at this point it looks as if it might be another lost season in the Big East for the Red Storm.