Mar 13, 2025; New York, NY, USA; St. John\u2019s Red Storm guard RJ Luis Jr. (12) shoots past Butler Bulldogs during the first half at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
NEW YORK, NY \u2014 The St. John\u2019s Red Storm picked up right where they left off from the regular season, with a dominating 78-57 win over Butler in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament on Thursday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis Jr. had himself quite the afternoon, pouring in 20 points, which led all scorers. Kadary Richmond finished with 15 points, while adding eight rebounds and nine assists to his line, falling just shy of a triple-double.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m just making the right plays, just going out there playing basketball, having fun freely,\u201d Richmond said. \u201cMy guys are making shots.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Aaron Scott also poured in 15 points with a season-high five steals.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI told the guys, five-plus [star] performances is a Michael Jordan performance,\u201d St. John\u2019s head coach Rick Pitino said. \u201cWe were four stars tonight. Good enough to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
## Team Performance<\/p>\n
Once again, the Red Storm won behind their calling cards all season: suffocating defense and rebounding.\n<\/p>\n
In the first half, St. John\u2019s forced seven turnovers and scored 13 points off of them. The Johnnies out-rebounded the Bulldogs 25-18 and 9-3 on the offensive glass. Over the course of the game, the Red Storm out-rebounded Butler 43-34.\n<\/p>\n
The domination down low extended on the offensive end, too, as the Red Storm outscored Butler 40-14 in the paint\n<\/p>\n
Add three-pointers to the long list of positives for St. John\u2019s head coach Rick Pitino\u2019s club, as the team shot 35% from behind the arc. Coming into the Big East tournament, one of St. John\u2019s weakness was three-point shooting, as they went 29.86% from beyond the arc on the season, which ranked No. 341 in the country.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t want this game to be close at all,\u201d Scott said after his side squeaked past Butler in their two previous meetings during the regular season.\n<\/p>\n
Along with three-point attempts, shooting from the free-throw line has been a concern for the Johnnies. They shot 75% from the line in this one, while they averaged just 68.83% from the charity stripe this season. That ranked No. 286 in the NCAA.\n<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s flew out of the gates in the second half, scoring buckets in five of their first six shot attempts and going on a 12-2 run that lasted 3:46, effectively putting the game to rest.<\/p>\n
## More Information<\/p>\n
## Conclusion
\nThe St. John\u2019s Red Storm’s dominating win over Butler in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament showcases their strength and strategy, with key players like RJ Luis Jr., Kadary Richmond, and Aaron Scott leading the team to victory. Their suffocating defense, rebounding, and improved three-point shooting were instrumental in their success.<\/p>\n
## FAQs
\nQ: Who led the St. John’s Red Storm in scoring?
\nA: RJ Luis Jr. led the team with 20 points.
\nQ: What was the final score of the game?
\nA: The St. John’s Red Storm won 78-57.
\nQ: What was a key factor in the Red Storm’s victory?
\nA: The team’s suffocating defense and rebounding were key factors in their win.
\nQ: How did the Red Storm perform from the three-point line?
\nA: The team shot 35% from behind the arc, an improvement from their season average.
\nQ: What is the next step for the St. John’s Red Storm?
\nA: For more information, visit AMNY.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to the Game Mar 13, 2025; New York, NY, USA; St. John\u2019s Red Storm guard RJ Luis Jr. (12) shoots past Butler Bulldogs during the first half at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images NEW YORK, NY \u2014 The St. John\u2019s Red Storm picked up right where they left off from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.amny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2025-03-13T170854Z_1263521734_MT1USATODAY25657500_RTRMADP_3_NCAA-BASKETBALL-BIG-EAST-CONFERENCE-TOURNAMENT-QUARTERFINAL-ST-JOHNS-VS-BUTLER.jpg?w=1200&p=q&w=1200&resize=1200,948&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14158,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14156\/revisions\/14158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}