St. John’s Red Storm and Creighton Bluejays meet in Big East Championship
Creighton Bluejays (23-9, 17-5 Big East) vs. St. John’s Red Storm (28-4, 20-2 Big East)
New York; Saturday, 6:30 p.m. EDT
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Red Storm -6.5; over/under is 140.5
BOTTOM LINE: No. 6 St. John’s and Creighton play for the Big East Championship.
The Red Storm are 20-2 against Big East opponents and 8-2 in non-conference play. St. John’s leads the Big East in rebounding, averaging 36.6 boards. Zuby Ejiofor leads the Red Storm with 8.1 rebounds.
The Bluejays are 17-5 in Big East play. Creighton averages 11.8 turnovers per game and is 4-0 when committing fewer turnovers than opponents.
St. John’s average of 6.0 made 3-pointers per game is 1.6 fewer made shots on average than the 7.6 per game Creighton gives up. Creighton has shot at a 47.5% rate from the field this season, 7.5 percentage points higher than the 40.0% shooting opponents of St. John’s have averaged.
The teams meet for the third time this season. Creighton won 57-56 in the last matchup on Dec. 31. Steven Ashworth led Creighton with 18 points, and Ejiofor led St. John’s with 16 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: RJ Luis is shooting 44.6% and averaging 18.2 points for the Red Storm. Aaron Scott is averaging 1.6 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.
Ashworth is shooting 37.4% from beyond the arc with 3.2 made 3-pointers per game for the Bluejays, while averaging 16.5 points and 6.9 assists. Ryan Kalkbrenner is shooting 64.4% and averaging 22.5 points over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Red Storm: 9-1, averaging 77.0 points, 36.7 rebounds, 16.3 assists, 8.7 steals and 4.2 blocks per game while shooting 44.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.7 points per game.
Bluejays: 7-3, averaging 76.3 points, 35.9 rebounds, 17.8 assists, 3.5 steals and 4.3 blocks per game while shooting 46.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.8 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
By The Associated Press
