St. John's Justin Simon Battles Arizona State.
MBB Minute -- St. John's Loses to Arizona State Friday; Saturday Schedule Has Eight Games
St. John’s had its three-game winning streak end Friday night in Los Angeles when it dropped an 82-70 decision to No. 16 Arizona State in the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic. The Red Storm cut a 13-point second-half deficit to one, but could not grab the lead.
Shamorie Ponds scored a team-high 19 points to go along with seven rebounds and seven assists. Marvin Clark II added 18 points and seven boards. Tariq Owens scored 17 points and blocked three shots. The Red Storm again were without guard Marcus LoVett who is nursing an ankle injury.
BIG EAST teams are a combined 69-17 (.802) this season going into Saturday. If non-conference play ended today, that would be the league’s best mark since 1988-89 (113-23, .831).
The Saturday schedule is crowded with eight games. FS1 has two games involving in-state rivals with Marquette at Wisconsin at noon ET followed by Creighton hosting Nebraska at 2:30 p.m. The action continues at 5 p.m. when No. 13 Xavier meets Colorado at Cintas Center.
Also at noon, Butler hosts Youngstown State on FSN. Georgetown has a quick turnaround from playing on Thursday, meeting North Carolina A&T at 2:30 p.m. on FS2.
No. 19 Seton Hall is playing at home against VCU in the Never Forget Tribute Classic. FOX will televise at 3 p.m. Also at 3 p.m., Providence travels to Massachusetts for a game carried on NESN. DePaul is on the road, but still local, when it meets Illinois-Chicago in a game televised locally on NBC Sports-Chicago.