Richmond scores 24 and hits winning jumper as No. 15 St. John's holds off Providence 68-66

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Kadary Richmond hits winner for St. John's in final seconds

Kadary Richmond nets the go-ahead bucket to give St. John's a 68-66 lead over Providence with three seconds left in the game.

Feb 1, 2025, 08:39 pm

NEW YORK -- — Kadary Richmond scored a season-high 24 points, including the tiebreaking jumper with three seconds left, and No. 15 St. John’s held off Providence 68-66 on Saturday after blowing a 19-point lead in the final nine minutes.

RJ Luis Jr. added 19 points and eight rebounds for the Red Storm (19-3, 10-1 Big East), off to the program's best start in 39 years. They have won eight straight games and 14 of 15.

St. John's took a half-game lead in the conference standings over No. 9 Marquette, scheduled to host No. 25 UConn on Saturday night.

Jabri Abdur-Rahim had a season-high 27 points off the bench to help Providence (11-11, 5-6) rally at Madison Square Garden. He made two of his eight 3-pointers during the furious comeback before Bensley Joseph hit a tying 3 with 33 seconds left — his only basket of the game to go with 12 rebounds and seven assists.

Following a timeout, Richmond used a screen by Zuby Ejiofor to get separation from Jayden Pierre and drain a pull-up jumper from the foul line. Joseph missed a heave from just inside halfcourt at the buzzer.

Richmond shot 10 of 14 from the field and had eight rebounds and eight assists. Ejiofor scored 13 for St. John’s, which shot 38% from the floor.

Takeaways

Providence: Entered averaging 12 turnovers per game but matched that total in the first half and finished with 20 overall.

St. John’s: Point guard Deivon Smith looked rusty at times after missing three of the previous four games with a right shoulder injury. He shot 1 for 10 from the field and finished with three points and six assists in 28 minutes off the bench.

Key moment

Corey Floyd Jr. and Abdur-Rahim made consecutive 3s that pulled Providence to 62-61 with 2:21 remaining.

Key stat

Providence’s top two scorers, Joseph and Pierre, combined for only 14 points on 5-of-23 shooting.

Up next

Providence hosts Creighton on Wednesday. St. John’s plays Marquette on Tuesday night at MSG before visiting UConn on Friday.

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