ROSEMONT, Ill. — To St. John’s coach Steve Lavin, the Red Storm’s up-and-down victory over DePaul on Saturday was characteristic of its season.
St. John’s built up a 17-point lead, only to see the Blue Demons cut it to three with 2:24 remaining. The Red Storm hit six free throws in the final two minutes to seal the 71-62 victory.
“We played really well in stretches, and then fell apart and played poorly in others,” said Lavin, who plays freshmen and sophomores. “Part of that is because DePaul continues to fight and scratch and claw, and they’re going to go on runs.”
Jamal Branch scored a career-high 18 points to lead four St. John’s players in double figures.
D’Angelo Harrison added 15 points and Sir’Dominic Pointer had 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Red Storm (11-7, 3-3 Big East), who have won seven straight against DePaul.
“We’re pleased we could find a way to win,” Lavin said. “But as everyone can see, we’re a major work in progress. We have a long way to go, a lot of deficiencies. We haven’t been able to sustain a level of play for 40 minutes yet.”
Jamee Crockett scored 19 points for DePaul (10-8, 1-4), which has lost three in a row and five of its last six. St. John’s last game was a 67-63 upset of No. 20 Notre Dame on Tuesday.
St. John’s gained control early in the second half. DePaul took the lead at 39-37 but the Red Storm responded with a 10-0 run. JaKarr Sampson later scored after a steal to give St. John’s a 56-46 lead with 10:32 remaining.
The Red Storm extended the lead to 17 with 7:36 remaining.
“The stretch early to midway in the second half where we gave up a number of offensive rebounds, a free-throw blockout and turned the ball over, situations led to easy baskets for St John’s,” DePaul coach Oliver Purnell said. “We were either leading by a couple or tied. That stretch right there was the key to the game. They got a little working margin of eight to 10 points, and now we’re battling back.”
Moses Morgan hit a 3-pointer to cut St. John’s lead to 65-62 with 2:24 left, but Harrison made five free throws in the final 2:04 for the Red Storm.
Crockett hit two 3-pointers during DePaul’s rally to whittle the lead to 65-59 with 2:57 left.
“We were just being aggressive. We were going back to what we do,” Crockett said.
St. John’s shot 49.2 percent from the field against a DePaul defense that ranks last in the Big East, allowing 69.7 points per game.
DePaul shot 34.7 percent from the field and finished almost 13 points below its season average. The Blue Demons were averaging 74.9 points per game, third in the Big East. DePaul hasn’t won a home game since a 69-61 victory over Maryland-Baltimore County on Dec. 22 that capped a seven-game winning streak.
The Blue Demons made just 5 of 25 3-point attempts.
“The other glaring area is our 3-point shooting,” Purnell said. “We took far too many of them, didn’t hit enough. We needed to go inside more and get fouled. We didn’t go to the line nearly enough.”
Cleveland Melvin scored 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting for DePaul. He entered the game averaging 17.7 points per game, fourth in the Big East, and had a career-high 32 points in a 75-70 loss to Cincinnati on Tuesday.
Branch scored 14 of his 18 points in the first half.
“Jamal Branch is our most natural playmaker and ballhandler,” Lavin said. “He played at an effective pace. His choices were good ones.”
St. John’s led by as much as six in the first half, shooting 46.9 percent from the field while DePaul shot 40.5 percent.
St. John’s plays at Rutgers on Wednesday. DePaul plays at Pittsburgh next Saturday.
DePaul was celebrating its Hall of Fame weekend and honored former standouts Stanley Brundy and Terence Greene and other inductees at halftime. Brundy and Greene played for the Blue Demons from 1985-89 and led them to two Sweet 16 appearances in the NCAA tournament.