NEW YORK (AP) — Federico Mussini scored all of his 17 points in the second half and St. John's ended its 16-game losing streak with an 80-65 victory over DePaul on Wednesday night.
The Red Storm (8-19, 1-13) won for the first time since a victory over Syracuse on Dec. 13. They won their first Big East conference game under first-year coach Chris Mullin and it came rather easily at Carnesecca Arena.
St. John's had a 31-24 halftime lead but things didn't look good at the start of the second half as the Blue Demons (8-17, 2-11) scored the first eight points of the half to take a 32-31 lead.
But the Red Storm got the lead right back on a rebound basket by Felix Balamou and they never gave it back. Mussini had half the points in a 14-2 run that gave St. John's a 54-37 lead with 9:12 to play. The Red Storm went on to lead by 20 with 6 minutes to play. DePaul got as close as 74-65 in the frenetic final few minutes.
Durand Johnson had 18 points and Kassoum Yakwe and Malik Ellison had 11 each for St. John's, which has won 11 of the last 13 meetings with DePaul and seven straight at home.
Eli Cain had a career-high 25 points for DePaul, which has lost three straight and five of six.