PHILADELPHIA — St. John’s put a bit of a scare into Villanova, but once again in this lost season, it wasn’t enough.
Daniel Ochefu scored a career-high 25 points, Ryan Arcidiacono added 13 and No. 1 Villanova beat St. John’s 73-63 Saturday night, handing the Red Storm their 16th straight defeat, the longest streak in Division I.
Amar Alibegovic led the Red Storm with a career-best 18 points.
“We tried to get them out of rhythm, but they’re a veteran, well-coached team,” St. John’s coach Chris Mullin said. “When you play the No. 1 team, you have to be perfect.”
Durand Johnson and Federico Mussini, who lead the Red Storm in scoring with an average of 11.9 points per game, combined for 12.
For a half, Villanova (22-3, 12-1 Big East) hardly looked like the nation’s top team.
The Wildcats, who were 27-point favorites, only led 28-27 at halftime.
“[St. John’s] might have played as well as any game I’ve seen them in a while,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “It’s a credit to Chris and his staff. They play hard for him to the last second. It’s very impressive.”
Whatever Wright said to his team during the break, it worked.
“That was not one of our best performances,” Wright said. “You have to give St. John’s credit for that. We were fortunate to go inside to Daniel.”
Ochefu, playing his second game after missing three with a concussion, dominated inside. He was 11 for 14 from the field and grabbed nine rebounds.
Villanova came out firing in the second half, going 9 for 11 while building a double-digit lead. Arcidiacono’s 3-pointer capped a 10-3 run and gave the Wildcats their biggest lead to that point, 51-40.
St. John’s (7-19, 0-13) cut it to 57-47 on an alley-oop slam by Kassoum Yakwe off a pass by Felix Balamou.
Malik Ellison’s 3-pointer got the Red Storm to 66-58 with 2:55 left, but Josh Hart made a pair of free throws and Ochefu powered in for a layup to extend the margin to 70-58.
Villanova was 0 for 11 from 3-point range in the first half before Arcidiacono hit one early in the second. The Wildcats even trailed 9-8 after Ron Mvouika’s 3-pointer 7:30 into the game.
“St. John’s came out and executed their game plan and we didn’t,” Arcidiacono said. “I don’t think there was added pressure being No. 1 at home.”