MORGANTOWN (AP) — Joel Soriano scored a career-high 24 points to lead St. John’s to a 79-73 victory over West Virginia in the Big East vs. Big 12 battle Friday night.
Chris Ledrum added a season-high 17 points and Nahiem Alleyne scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half for St. John’s (5-2), which won its third straight.
Quinn Slazinski, who played the past two seasons at Iona under St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, led West Virginia (3-4) with 19 points. Jesse Edwards added 15 points before fouling out, and Kobe Johnson had 14 points.
Both teams combined for 46 fouls and 63 free throws. Soriano appeared to lose his teeth in the second half when he was hit with an elbow under the St. John’s basket. West Virginia University outscored St. John’s University in free throws 31-14, but the Mountaineers made 4 of 8 from the line in the final moments.
Jordan Dingle’s layup four minutes into the second half put St. John’s ahead for good, and Soriano’s layup with six minutes remaining gave the Red Storm its largest lead at 63-54.
Slazinski followed up his own 3-point play with a bank shot to pull West Virginia within 70-68 with two minutes left. But the climbers did not come close. Alleyne then hit a layup and a 3-pointer to give St. John’s a cushion.
West Virginia took a 22-15 lead midway through the first half, but Soriano sank a layup and three free throws, and Ledlum made a dunk and a 3-pointer to take a 10-0 lead. The Mountaineers rallied from a six-minute scoring chance to go into halftime tied 36-36.