Central Plains FFA Chapter

12/16 20:42 CST Darling scores season-high 17 points as No. 22 St. John's beats DePaul 79-66 in Big East opener Darling scores season-high 17 points as No. 22 St. John's beats DePaul 79-66 in Big East opener By LARRY FLEISHER Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) --- Dylan Darling scored a season-high 17 points off the bench and gave No. 22 St. John's a lift with his 3-point shooting as the Red Storm opened Big East play with a 79-66 victory over DePaul on Tuesday night. Playing their only conference game inside Carnesecca Arena this season, the Red Storm (7-3, 1-0) led virtually the entire way and avoided another slow start after missing 12 of their first 13 shots in Saturday's 91-64 win over Iona at Madison Square Garden. Darling shot 5 of 9 from the field and hit a trio of 3s to help the Johnnies finish with 10 in his second game since being supplanted by Ian Jackson as the team's starting point guard. The 6-foot-1 junior entered 1 of 15 from outside the arc in his first eight games at St. John's after transferring from Idaho State. Joson Sanon added 15 points and tied a career high with nine rebounds. Jackson scored 10 and Zuby Ejiofor had nine points, seven rebounds and four blocks --- giving him 20 over the last three games. Ejiofor became the first Big East player with 20 blocks in a three-game span since Chris Obekpa for the Red Storm in 2013. St. John's shot 45% and got 32 points from its reserves, including nine from Ruben Prey on 4-of-4 shooting --- including a 3. Kaleb Banks led the Blue Demons (8-4, 0-1) with 19 points and CJ Gunn added 15. The Blue Demons shot 39% and went 7 of 25 (28%) from 3-point distance.

Up next DePaul: Will host No. 5 UConn on Sunday. St. John's: Will face Kentucky on Saturday in the CBS Sports Classic at Atlanta. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball