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St. John's buries Tulane to continue roll

Dec 28, 2014 - 10:17 PM Brooklyn, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Sir'Dominic Pointer posted career highs of 24 points and seven steals to lead No. 17 St. John's to an 82-57 rout of Tulane at Barclays Center.

The Red Storm (11-1) built a 47-22 halftime lead and forced 17 turnovers in moving to 11-1, the program's best 12-game start since the 1985-86 season.

"I thought in the first half we had quick hands," Red Storm head coach Steve Lavin remarked. "We turned up the heat a bit and played with purposeful pressure."

D'Angelo Harrison contributed 21 points and Rysheed Jordan had 12 in St. John's seventh straight victory since a loss to No. 8 Gonzaga on Nov. 28.

Jonathan Stark paced Tulane (9-3) with 15 points and Louis Dabney finished with 12 in the loss, the Green Wave's second this week to a ranked opponent. Tulane was coming off a 66-57 setback at No. 13 Washington on Monday.

Tulane hit five of its first seven shots, but went 4-of-18 over the remainder of the opening half and committed 11 turnovers, many of which led to easy St. John's points in transition.

Four of those miscues came during an 18-5 Red Storm run that turned an early deficit into a 24-14 lead just past the midway mark of the first half. Seven straight points, capped by Pointer's layup off one of his six steals of the period, later on had St. John's up comfortably at 31-16 with 5 1/2 minutes to go before the intermission.

"Their toughness on the defensive end really got them going on the offensive end and gave them a lot of confidence," Tulane head coach Ed Conroy said of St. John's. "Obviously, our execution on the offensive end was not what is needed to be as far as taking care of the basketball and taking the right shots."

The Red Storm finished out the stanza with a flourish, closing the half on a 14-0 tear to account for their 25-point advantage at the break. Jordan ended the frame with a run-out slam after blocking a shot.

Tulane failed to cut its deficit under 21 points during an evenly played second half in which Harrison put up 13 points to help St. John's stay in front by a sizeable margin.

Game Notes

Harrison has now scored 1,829 career points and passed both Zendon Hamilton and Bob Zawoluk to occupy fourth place on the Red Storm's all-time list ... Jordan returned to action after sitting out Monday's win over Long Beach State with a stomach virus ... Pointer's previous career best was 18 points, set against LIU-Brooklyn on Nov. 19 ... The Red Storm's seven-game win streak is their first since Nov. 22-Dec. 20, 2008 ... Tulane has lost 30 straight to ranked teams ... St. John's opens Big East play on Wednesday with a visit to Seton Hall.