RJ Luis Jr. scored 19 points Tuesday night in New York as St. John’s opened the Big East portion of its schedule with a wire-to-wire, 89-61 rout of visiting DePaul, which saw its conference regular-season losing streak reach 34 games.
Luis came off the bench for the second time this season and made 7 of 11 shots in 21 minutes to help the Red Storm (9-2, 1-0) cruise to a fourth straight win. Luis scored 14 points in the opening half when St. John’s began taking control
Kadary Richmond added 12 of his 18 points in the second half and added seven rebounds as St. John’s shot 55.2 percent, outrebounded DePaul 41-29 and outscored the Blue Demons 49-32 in the second half. Simeon Wilcher added 16 while Zuby Ejiofor contributed 12 and seven boards to help St. John’s score 56 points in the paint along with 18 fastbreak points and 17 second-chance points.
Deivon Smith returned to the starting lineup and contributed nine points, eight assists, six rebounds and five steals.
After taking Providence to overtime in its Big East opener, DePaul (8-3, 0-2) could not keep pace with the league’s top-scoring offense. The Blue Demons shot 39.2 percent and were 6-of-20 from 3-point range after sinking 17 3s in Saturday’s 91-72 win over Wichita State.
Layden Blocker led DePaul with 17 points and Conor Enright added 12 but DePaul’s leading scorers struggled all night. Jacob Meyer was held to six points on 1-of-8 shooting, Isaiah Rivera finished with two points on 1-of-6 from the floor and the duo was a combined 0-of-7 from behind the arc.
St. John’s took a 25-16 lead with about eight minutes remaining in the first half, shortly after Ejiofor returned from a rest. After DePaul cut it to 33-27, St. John’s took a 40-29 halftime lead on a dunk by Luis with 25 seconds left following an errant pass by N.J. Benson.
The Red Storm kept surging ahead and scored 11 straight points for a 57-33 lead after Smith’s putback layup with 14:34 remaining. St. John’s pushed the lead past 30 when a jumper by Luis made a 68-37 with 11:11 left.
The Red Storm reached 80 points on a basket by Jaiden Glover about four minutes later.
