D’Angelo Harrison poured in a season-high 33 points as St. John’s beat DePaul 86-78 on Wednesday night at Carnesecca Arena, moving the Johnnies into Joe Lunardi’s “Last Four In” to the NCAA Tournament.
Harrison shot 10-of-14 from the field, including 6-of-8 from the arc and 7-of-7 from the foul line to go with 10 rebounds.
“Tonight felt really important,” Harrison said. “We are in the second half of Big East with only one game left at Carnesecca [Arena]. We wanted to come out and win for us and for everybody else.”
Phil Greene IV added 18 points and Sir’Dominic Pointer and Rysheed Jordan scored 15 apiece for St. John’s (16-8, 5-6 Big East), which has won two straight and three of four entering Saturday’s game at Xavier. Pointer also had five blocks.
In the absence of junior big man Chris Obekpa, who missed the game with a sprained right ankle, St. John’s out-rebounded DePaul 43-37. Pointer grabbed 11 and Harrison 10.
“Given that Chris was injured, for us to outrebound DePaul by 16 says a lot about our team’s fortitude,” coach Steve Lavin said. “We hustled for 40 minutes and found a way to offset not having Chris available tonight.”
“I just want to do whatever I need to do for my team to win a game,” Harrison said. I have been feeling healthier and I think we had four guys in double-figures, so we played well. We do have stuff to work on and there is room for improvement.”
