Lindsey's Career Day Leads Providence Over St. John's 90-76

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jalen Lindsey doubled his career high with 30 points and Providence secured the No. 4 seed in the Big East Tournament with a 90-76 victory over St. John's at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Lindsey had a career day in the game's first 11 minutes. The sophomore guard hit his first seven shots, four from 3-point range, and the 18 points eclipsed his previous career high of 15.

The rest of the Friars (22-9, 10-8) were hitting at a pretty good clip themselves as they were shooting 60 percent over the first 10 minutes.

Lindsey had 20 points at halftime and Ben Bentil had 15 as the Friars took a 49-26 halftime lead. Lindsey was 7 for 9 from the field in the first half and Bentil was 6 of 11 as the Friars hit 51.4 percent for the half (18 of 35).

What made the shooting spree so out of character for the Friars was that they came into the game shooting 41.4 percent, ninth in the Big East and ahead only of St. John's at 39.8 percent.

Lindsey finished 10 of 16 from the field and 6 of 9 from 3-point range.

Bentil finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds while Kris Dunn had 13 points and 11 assists.

Durand Johnson led the Red Storm (9-23, 1-17), which got as close as 13 points in the second half, with 15 points and Christian Jones had 14 points and 12 rebounds. It was St. John's fourth straight loss and 20th in 21 games.

Providence won its third straight after losing five of six.

TIP-INS:

Providence: If Bentil wins the scoring title he will be the fourth Friar in the past six years to lead the Big East, joining Marshon Brooks in 2011; Bryce Cotton in 2013 and LaDontae Henton in 2015. --- The win over Creighton this week was coach Ed Cooley's 100th at Providence making him the sixth Friars coach to reach that figure at the school. --- The last time the Friars reached 22 wins in the regular season was 1977-78. Only six teams in the school's 89-year history have reached that mark.

St. John's: The Red Storm missed their first eight free throws before finishing 6 for 18. --- Two members of the Red Storm went into the final day of the regular season leading the conference in a statistical category. Federico Mussini was the top free throw shooter at 87.2 percent and Kassoum Yake was the top shot blocker at 2.7 per game, just ahead of teammate Yankuba Sima at 2.6. --- The Red Storm finished 2-4 at Madison Square Garden, winning the first two games there over St. Francis Brooklyn and Syracuse. --- St. John's honored senior Felix Balamou and graduate transfers Johnson and Ron Mvouika before the game.

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