• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

No. 17 St. John's routs Long Beach State

Dec 23, 2014 - 5:58 AM Queens, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Chris Obekpa had 16 points, six blocks and eight rebounds as No. 17 St. John's routed Long Beach State 66-49 on Monday night.

Phil Greene IV posted 16 points and four steals, while Sir'Dominic Pointer added 11 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Red Storm (10-1), who moved to 8-0 at home this season.

"This team grinded it out and manufactured the win," Red Storm coach Steve Lavin said.

Mike Caffey netted 13 points to lead Long Beach State (5-8), which fell to 0-7 on the road this year.

"(St. John's) was able to force us to turn the ball over in the second half and get some baskets off of their defense. I thought that was the difference," LBSU coach Dan Monson said.

After Tyler Lamb's layup cut the 49ers' deficit to 46-39, the Red Storm went on a 15-3 run to put the game away. Obekpa had four points during the surge, which was capped on a pair of D'Angelo Harrison free throws for a 61-42 advantage with 1:28 left.

Earlier, St. John's raced out to an 11-4 start, but Long Beach State stayed within striking distance and was down 24-20 heading into the break.

Lamb nailed a 3-pointer to give LBSU a 28-27 edge early in the second half, but St. John's responded with a 9-0 spurt, with Greene's triple staking the Red Storm to a 36-28 margin.

Game Notes

St. John's posted 12 steals and nine blocks ... The Red Storm were just 3- of-15 from beyond the arc and sunk just 9-of-16 from the foul line ... Harrison tallied nine points and 10 boards for the Red Storm.