St. John’s shows its growing up with dominant second half to rout Marquette

It felt similar. A big lead was cut nearly in half by halftime. 

St. John’s was letting an inferior team hang around, much like Providence 10 days ago. 

Except these Johnnies seem to have grown up a bit since that loss. 

They came out determined for the second half and looked like the team that was so impressive in lopsided road wins over Butler and Creighton last week. 

A Bryce Hopkins-led 13-0 run blew it open, as St. John’s cruised to a 92-68 rout of Marquette at the Garden with a dominant second half. 

The Red Storm (12-5, 5-1) improved to 5-1 in league play for the second consecutive year, and have now won eight of their last 10 games.

The new three-forward starting lineup continued to shine, as St. John’s was plus-13 on the glass and Hopkins, Zuby Ejiofor and Dillon Mitchell combined for 42 points, 23 rebounds and 10 assists. 

Oziyah Sellers enjoyed his second consecutive strong offensive game, scoring 24 points and hitting four 3-pointers, and the Red Storm defense forced Marquette into 19 turnovers. 

St. John’s led by 10 early in the opening half, but was stagnant after that, partly due to foul trouble to Hopkins and Ejiofor.

It was only a six-point game at the break, and it felt somewhat similar to the Providence loss. 

But unlike that game, the Johnnies didn’t let a shaky stretch get worse.

The second half started with consecutive easy baskets by Mitchell and Ejiofor, and Hopkins took over to spark the run that put the game away, scoring eight points in the spurt.