Steve Lavin’s club has now won four straight and seven of eight after Rysheed Jordan went for 23 points as St. John’s beat Marquette 67-51 on Wednesday in Milwaukee.
The Red Storm are now 21-9, 10-7 in the Big East heading into Saturday’s regular season finale at first-place Villanova.
“I was proud of our kids and especially happy for our seniors in taking a step in the right direction toward their goals,” Lavin said. “At this stage of the year you really don’t grade the wins, you just want to accumulate them and move on.”
St. John’s entered the day as a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament and facing No. 8 Dayton, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, but they certainly seem to be helping themselves.
Jordan was 6-of-11 from the field including five 3-pointers. D’Angelo Harrison added 21 points, six rebounds and three assists. Phil Greene IV had 11 points and eight rebounds and Sir’Dominic Pointer, the reigning Big East Player of the Week, tallied 10 points and grabbed 13 boards.
Harrison sank three 3-pointers early in the second half and Jordan hit another to extend the Red Storm’s 34-27 halftime advantage to 53-41 with 8:42 to play. Harrison and Jordan teamed up for back-to-back 3s with 2:07 remaining to seal the win.
Matt Carlino led the Golden Eagles (11-18, 3-14) with 17 points.
(The AP contributed reporting)