Dane Miller tallied 11 points and six rebounds as the Rutgers Scarlet Knights held off the St. John's Red Storm, 58-56, in Big East Conference action at Madison Square Garden.
Mike Poole and Austin Johnson scored 10 points apiece for Rutgers (11-3, 2-1 Big East), which has won seven of its last eight.
For St. John's (9-6, 1-2), D'Angelo Harrison led all scorers with 20 points, while JaKarr Sampson and Sir'Dominic Pointer scored 12 and 10 points, respectively. Chris Obekpa added 11 rebounds and five blocks for the Red Storm, who have lost three of four.
Rutgers opened the game on a 13-2 run, but St. John's finished the first half strong as it went into intermission with a 27-23 lead.
In a back-and-forth second half, the Red Storm held a 52-51 lead with 3:31 to play, but Dane Miller converted a layup on the Knights' next possession to give them the one-point advantage. Miller converted another basket less than a minute later, and Rutgers made 3-of-5 from the foul line down the stretch to seal the victory.
Rutgers shot just 40 percent from the field in the game, but St. John's was even worse at 35.2 percent.
Game Notes
