NEW YORK – Dressed in head-to-toe white, Rick Pitino and his St. John's players handed No. 15 Creighton a humiliating defeat.
Daniss Jenkins scored a season-high 27 points and St. John's destroyed the Bluejays 80-66 on Sunday for their best win yet under the Hall of Fame coach.
Jordan Dingle added 18 points and the Red Storm (16-12, 8-9 Big East) finally beat a quality conference opponent after a series of blown leads. They put on a clinical performance from start to finish in front of a roaring, singing Madison Square Garden crowd of 12,061, making all 10 free throws and racking up 24 assists and just three turnovers while holding the Bluejays (20-8, 11- 6) on 6 of 26 shots (23%) from 3-point range.
“I think we learned a lot tonight about what great basketball is like,” said Pitino, in his first season at St. John's.
On the sideline, Pitino, 71, looked a bit like Colonel Sanders in his all-white suit and shoes as the Red Storm fomented a “blackout” among fans on Johnnies Day at MSG.
“I wasn't actually going to use it. It was a last-minute thing,” Pitino said, explaining that his wife repeatedly urged him. “My players were going to enjoy it a lot and that's why I did it.”
So on Saturday afternoon, he walked to the Armani store half a block from his apartment and asked for a little help choosing some new fixtures.
“It didn't fit the old man,” Pitino said, drawing laughter.
“He came out with that on, you can't lose it,” said Jenkins, who was 12-for-18 and added six assists, two steals and two blocks.
Joel Soriano had 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the Red Storm, who went 0-5 against Top 25 opponents this season. Glenn Taylor Jr. finished with 10 rebounds and a team-high six assists.
“Every time we tried to be a little more aggressive, they would make an extra pass and turn a good shot into a better one,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “They moved it really well today.”
Trey Alexander scored a season-high 31 points for the Bluejays, who had won four straight and seven of nine. They were coming off an eye-opening blowout of UConn at home Tuesday night that ended the Huskies' 14-game winning streak and marked the program's first win over a higher-ranked team.
Ryan Kalkbrenner had 12 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocks for Creighton, which has won the previous seven meetings between the schools.
St. John's led by nine in the second half on Jan. 13 at Creighton before losing 66-65 in a game that featured 18 lead changes and seven ties.
“I'm not surprised. I was impressed with them the first time we played,” McDermott said. “They can beat anyone on any night.”
A week ago, Pitino publicly lashed out at his players after they blew a 19-point lead in a home loss to Seton Hall, saying that “if I said I was disappointed, that would be the understatement of the year. Our lateral quickness and our toughness “It's something I've never witnessed in all my years as a coach.”
He apologized and clarified some of those comments following Wednesday night's win at Georgetown, but the Red Storm responded with two straight wins after losing eight of 10.
“It's about time,” Dingle said. “We had too many that we gave away.”
It remains to be seen if a strong finish could still be enough to earn a bid to the NCAA at-large tournament.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
