PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The No. 2 St. John's men's basketball team (31-4) matched a program record by earning its 31^st victory of the season on Thursday after downing No. 15 Omaha (22-13), 83-53, in a NCAA Tournament First Round matchup at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence.
 
After a slow start, the Red Storm rolled in the second half outscoring the Mavericks 50-25 over the final 20 minutes to earn its largest ever margin of victory in an NCAA Tournament game. The victory marked St. John's first in the Big Dance since defeating Northern Arizona, 61-56, on March 16, 2000.
 
The Johnnies have now won 10-straight and 20 of their last 21 since the year turned to 2025. St. John's has previously tallied 31 wins twice in a single season in 1984-85 and 1985-86.
 
The Red Storm advances to the NCAA Tournament Second Round to face No. 10 Arkansas on Saturday at 2:40 p.m. on CBS.
 
The Johnnies set the program's new NCAA Tournament single-game record and tied a season-high for made 3-pointers, sinking 14 from beyond-the-arc. The Red Storm surpassed the previous record set on March 13, 1999, when it hit 10 triples against Indiana.
 
RJ Luis Jr. caught fire at Amica Mutual Pavilion, nailing a career-high five 3-pointers while finishing with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting. The junior wing logged his sixth 20-point game over his last seven appearances and added eight boards in the Ocean State.  
 
Simeon Wilcher chipped in 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor and matched a personal best with three made triples on 50 percent shooting from long-range.
 
Kadary Richmond finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and six assists on Thursday night. Zuby Ejiofor was the fourth and final St. John's player to reach double-figures, adding 10 points, seven boards and three blocks. Ruben Prey matched a season-best with six points, tying his mark in the season opener against Fordham on Nov. 4.
 
Omaha started the game by jumping out to a 7-0 run before Luis got going, scoring eight of St. John's next 10 points to knot the score with 12:49 remaining in the opening half. Later in the stanza, the Mavericks nudged out to a six-point advantage before Wilcher quickly fired back with a corner triple, which started an 8-0 run capped off by a 3-pointer from Deivon Smith as St. John's grabbed its first lead of the night, 22-21, with 6:22 remaining in the first half.
 
The Johnnies stayed hot from beyond-the-arc as Prey cashed in from deep and Wilcher nailed his second of the game as the Red Storm made four 3-pointers over a 3:25 span to take a 28-22 lead. Ejiofor expanded the lead to as many as eight, 30-22, before the Mavericks closed with a 6-0 spurt to pull within two. On the final possession of the period, Smith dished an inside feed to Vince Iwuchkwu for a three-point play and carry a 33-28 lead into the locker room.
 
In the second half, the Johnnies came out firing on all cylinders, racing out to a 10-2 run to open the period. Luis and Aaron Scott recorded triples before Luis finished a fastbreak alley-oop from Wilcher sending the Johnnies out to a 13-point lead, 43-30, and forcing an Omaha timeout.  
 
Later in the second half, Luis continued to find his stroke from downtown sinking a pair of triples as part of a 10-0 run that propelled the Red Storm to a 24-point advantage at the under-12 media timeout.
 
St. John's cruised through the final 10 minutes of play with a commanding lead as the 3-pointers continued to fall. Smith nailed one from the corner before Lefteris Liotopoulos flushed his first triple of the night and the team's 14^th of the game, matching a season-high set against then-No. 13/14 Baylor on Nov. 22. The freshman's 3-pointer ballooned the lead to 30 as the Johnnies advance to the NCAA Tournament Second Round for the 27^th time in program history.