Ian Jackson scored 18 points as No. 25 St. John’s extended its winning streak to seven games with a wire-to-wire 92-70 rout of Butler on Wednesday night in New York.
After honoring Rick Pitino for becoming the fourth coach with 900 career wins, the Red Storm (16-5, 9-1 Big East) notched their fourth double-digit victory of the streak by starting aggressively in their first game as a ranked team since Dec. 20 before heating up from 3-point range.
Zuby Ejiofor totaled 15 points, six rebounds, five assists and had three of the Red Storm’s eight blocks. The senior forward ended the game one point shy of 1,000 points since transferring to St. John’s following one season at Kansas.
Dillon Mitchell collected 14 points and 13 boards as the Red Storm outrebounded Butler 41-31. Reserve Joson Sanon contributed 13 points as St. John’s topped 90 points for the 10th time this season.
No. 10 Houston 79, TCU 70
Kingston Flemings poured in 27 points, Emanuel Sharp added 23 and the Cougars went on to a victory over the Horned Frogs at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Cougars (18-2, 6-1 Big 12) bounced back after falling at Texas Tech on Saturday. It was the third straight 20-point performance for Flemings, who scored 42 in the loss to Tech. Milos Uzan finished with 10 points, four rebounds and four assists, and Chris Cenac Jr. had eight points and 14 rebounds for Houston.
TCU (13-8, 3-5) saw a brief two-game winning streak end. Xavier Edmonds scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and David Punch had 16 points and six assists to lead the Frogs.
No. 19 Florida 95, South Carolina 48
Thomas Haugh scored 18 points Wednesday night, Rueben Chinyelu posted a double-double and the Gators led nearly wire to wire on its way to a Southeastern Conference road rout of the Gamecocks in Columbia, S.C.
Chinyelu added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Gators (15-6, 6-2), while Urban Klavzar came off the bench to chip in 11 points. Alex Condon stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Boogie Fland contributed 10 points and six assists.
Eli Ellis scored 13 points in a reserve role for the Gamecocks (11-10, 2-6) and Meechie Johnson added 10 but it wasn’t close to being enough. South Carolina sank just 15 of 58 attempts from the field, including a measly 3 of 20 on 3-pointers.
–Field Level Media
