Dylan Darling scored a season-high 17 points and sparked decisive runs in each half for host St. John’s, which beat DePaul 79-66 in the Big East opener for both schools on Tuesday night in New York.
The 17 points were the most for Darling since March 3, when he scored a career-high 34 points for Idaho State in a loss to Northern Arizona.
Joson Sanon (15 points, nine rebounds) flirted with a double-double and Ian Jackson added 10 points for St. John’s (7-3, 1-0 Big East), which has won its last five conference openers, including three under Rick Pitino.
Zuby Ejiofor (nine points, seven rebounds) also came up just short of a double-double while Ruben Prey had nine points off the bench for the Red Storm, which has won a season-high three straight.
St. John’s limited DePaul to 39.1% shooting (27 of 69) from the field, including 28% (7 of 25) from 3-point land. The Red Storm’s reserves outscored the Blue Demons bench 32-4.
Kaleb Banks posted a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds for DePaul (8-4, 0-1), which has dropped 11 straight league openers. CJ Gunn had 15 points while RJ Smith (13) and N.J. Benson (11) also got into double figures as the Blue Demons’ three-game winning streak ended.
St. John’s trailed just once — on Gunn’s jumper to open the game — and began pulling away when Darling hit a 3-pointer to begin an 18-3 run that extended the Red Storm’s lead to 37-19 with five minutes left in the first half. Six different players scored during the surge, a span in which DePaul was 1-of-10 shooting with four turnovers.
The Blue Demons scored the next nine points before Ejiofor’s putback dunk with 1:44 remaining accounted for the final points of the half and gave St. John’s a 39-28 advantage.
DePaul closed within seven points twice in the second half, the last time at 49-42 following a pair of free throws by Gunn with 12:52 left. St. John’s answered with a 15-7 run in which Darling scored five points.
The Blue Demons got no closer than 10 points over the final 11 minutes.
