Richmond, Smith lead way as No. 10 St. John's blows out DePaul

CHICAGO (AP) — Kadary Richmond had 17 points and nine rebounds, Deivon Smith scored 18 and No. 10 St. John’s matched its highest Big East win total in 26 years, beating DePaul 82-58 on Wednesday night.

Sadiku Ibine Ayo scored a career-high 15. Zuby Ejiofor chipped in with 13 points and nine rebounds, helping St. John’s win for the 12th time in 13 games.

In their second season under Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, the first-place Red Storm (23-4, 14-2) equaled their highest conference win total since the 1998-99 team went 14-4 in league play. They lead No. 16 Marquette and Creighton by 2 1/2 games.

Isaiah Rivera led DePaul with 16 points, but the last-place Blue Demons (11-16, 2-14) lost for the seventh time in eight games.

Takeaways

St. John's: The Red Storm got an easy win even though star RJ Luis Jr. missed the game because of a pulled groin.

DePaul: Chris Holtmann inherited a big job when he was hired to rebuild a once-proud program. Games like this show just how much work he has to do.

Key moment

It was tied at 20 when Ayo and Simeon Wilcher hit back-to-back 3s, and the Red Storm took over from there. They scored 11 straight as part of a 16-2 run, and they added to their lead after Rivera hit a 3 for DePaul with just under two minutes remaining. Ayo answered with one of his own, and Smith scored on a tip-in for St. John’s with 23 seconds left.

Key stat

St. John's made nine 3-pointers, with Smith and Ayo each nailing three.

Up next

The Red Storm will try to beat UConn for the second time in a little more than two weeks when they host the Huskies on Sunday. DePaul has a home game against Butler on Saturday.

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