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No. 24 Butler storms past St. John’s with 3-point barrage

St John's v Butler

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - FEBRUARY 15: Andrew Chrabascz #45 of the Butler Bulldogs shoot the ball against Kassoum Yakwe #14 of the St. John’s Red Storm at Hinkle Fieldhouse on February 15, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Avery Woodson scored a season-high 20 points and Andrew Chrabascz also had 20 on Wednesday night as No. 24 Butler blew out St. John’s 110-86.

The Bulldogs (20-6, 9-5 Big East) ended a two-game home losing streak.

Federico Mussini had 20 points to lead the Red Storm (12-15, 6-8), who never had a chance after giving up the first seven points of the game.

The Bulldogs extended the lead to 21-7 and then used a 7-0 run to make it 39-25. The Bulldogs closed out their highest scoring first of the half season with a 54-35 lead.

Butler’s nine 3-pointers in the first half matched St. John’s total field goals, and the Bulldogs had a 24-8 rebounding advantage in the first 20 minutes.

St. John’s couldn’t get closer than 14 points in the second half.

Chrabascz took advantage of the early 3-point barrage by scoring 15 points in the first half. Kelan Martin had 19 points, Tyler Wideman wound up with 14 points and 10 rebounds and Kethan Savage had 11 points before fouling out for Butler.

The Bulldogs finished 13 of 26 on 3s, matching their season best.

Shamorie Ponds had 18 points for St. John’s. Bashir Ahmed and Marcus Lovett each scored 15.

BIG PICTURE

St. John’s: Coach Chris Mullin’s team has made a lot of progress this season. But they have struggled badly on the road, and this one was no different. The Red Storm have lost six of their last seven Big East road games and have dropped into the bottom half of the Big East standings.

Butler: The Bulldogs needed a change after losing three of their last four. Returning to Hinkle Fieldhouse did the trick. Butler picked up its first home win since Jan. 15 and improved to 21-5 under coach Chris Holtmann following a loss. Now, if they can string together some wins, they will stay in the Top 25 another week and perhaps start putting the final pieces in place for a potential top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament.

UP NEXT

St. John’s: Will try to pull off a season sweep at Marquette on Tuesday.

Butler: Plays DePaul in a rare Sunday afternoon game at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

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More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25.