Ian Jackson and Keyshawn Hall Score 17 Each as No. 13 St. John's Routs Colgate 90-59

Colgate came to Queens on Wednesday night and did something few visitors manage against this St. John's team: it hung around for most of a half. The Raiders tied the game three times in the opening five minutes, made shots from deep and were within six with three and a half minutes left before halftime. Then Ian Jackson took over, and the rest of the night belonged to the home team. No. 13 St. John's beat Colgate 90-59 at Carnesecca Arena.

Jackson and Keyshawn Hall scored 17 points apiece to lead the Red Storm. Tounde Yessoufou followed up his 23-point performance against Iona with 15 points, four rebounds and three steals, and Lefteris Liotopoulos gave Rick Pitino 13 points off the bench. Quinn Ellis handed out nine assists without a turnover. St. John's is now 3-0 with three double-digit wins. Colgate falls to 0-3, with all three losses coming on the road.

The final margin was built the way Pitino's teams like to build them. St. John's shot 48.4 percent, made 12 of 30 3-pointers, forced 19 turnovers and turned them into 27 points. The Red Storm had 11 steals, 21 fast-break points and 20 assists on 30 baskets. ESPN had them leading for 92 percent of the game, they never trailed, and the lead peaked at 35.

Colgate Trades Punches Early

Hall scored the first basket of the night on a layup set up by Ruben Prey, and Prey and Yessoufou added baskets in the opening two minutes. Colgate kept answering from outside. Parker Jones hit a 3 to tie it at 6, Blake Forrest made another to tie it at 11, and Josh Ahayere's 3 tied it again at 14 with 15:19 left in the half. Andrew Alekseyenko was a problem inside too, scoring the Raiders' first basket on a jumper and setting up Jones for the first of those 3s.

The St. John's defense was already doing damage, even if the scoreboard did not show it yet. Yessoufou had two early steals and turned one of them into a dunk, and Ellis had two more inside the first seven minutes. After the 14-14 tie, the Red Storm finally found some separation. Hall made two free throws, Liotopoulos came off the bench and buried a 3 on a Hall assist, and Babacar Sane scored on a feed from Ellis to make it 21-14 with 12:02 left in the half.

From there the Red Storm stretched the lead to 15. But Colgate would not go away. The Raiders chipped away over the next several minutes and cut the deficit to 38-32 with 3:34 left before halftime.

Jackson's 11-0 Burst

That is when Jackson took the game over. The preseason first-team All-Big East pick scored 11 points in the final 3:34 of the half, which accounted for every point St. John's scored in that span. A six-point game became a 17-point game, and Jackson capped the run himself, going coast to coast for a layup at the buzzer that sent St. John's to the locker room up 49-32.

Jackson finished the first half with 14 points. He finished the night 6-of-10 from the field and 3-of-5 from 3, matching the 17 points he scored against Iona three days earlier. Yessoufou and Hall each had 10 points by halftime, and Ellis already had six assists.

The 49 first-half points were the product of the same formula that has defined this team so far. St. John's turned defense into transition, played downhill and let its wings make plays. Colgate's 32 first-half points were a respectable number, but the final three and a half minutes undid most of the Raiders' good work.

The Second Half Gets Away From Colgate

Whatever adjustments Colgate made at halftime did not last long. Yessoufou and Jackson hit corner 3s early in the second half, and St. John's quickly pushed its lead to 61-36. Over the final 23 and a half minutes, by the AP's count, the Red Storm outscored Colgate 51-27.

The only real concern of the second half came with 6:45 left. Hall took a hard fall on the baseline after a foul by Colgate's Cameron Brennan. Hall got up after being checked out, took his two free throws and then left the game for good. The AP described it as a minor injury scare, and with the game well in hand, there was no reason to keep the graduate student on the floor. Hall finished with 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting, 2-of-4 from 3 and 5-of-7 from the line, plus four assists.

Ellis Keeps Running the Show

The most interesting development of St. John's young season may be Ellis, the new point guard from England. Ellis has been exactly what Pitino needed in the backcourt. Against Monmouth in the opener, Ellis had seven assists and five steals. Against Iona, it was 11 assists and one turnover. On Wednesday, Ellis played 32 minutes and finished with six points, six rebounds, nine assists, four steals and zero turnovers.

Ellis did not shoot it well, going 2-of-7 from the field, but that hardly mattered. The Red Storm assisted on two-thirds of their baskets, and the guard who has spent three games setting the table has now handed out 27 assists in that span. With Jackson, Hall and Yessoufou all capable of scoring 20 on a given night, a point guard who keeps the ball moving and protects it is a valuable piece.

Liotopoulos was the bench star. In just 14 minutes, Liotopoulos scored 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including 3-of-4 from 3. Sane added nine points and six rebounds in a productive stint inside, and the bench combined for 24 points. Prey did the dirty work in the frontcourt with 11 points, eight rebounds and two blocks, making four of six free throws.

Alekseyenko Leads the Raiders

Colgate got a solid night from Alekseyenko, who scored 15 points on 6-of-15 shooting with eight rebounds and four assists in 25 minutes. Ahayere added nine points, Jones scored eight on 3-of-10 shooting, Kingston McKoy had seven and Forrest and Isaiah Skinn added six apiece. Forrest was 2-of-2 from 3.

The Raiders did enough early to make the game interesting, and they finished a respectable 34-39 on the glass. The problem was the rest of the night. Colgate shot 37.7 percent from the field, 7-of-27 from 3 and only 6-of-11 from the free throw line, and the 19 turnovers were simply too many against a team that lives in the open floor. The Raiders had 11 assists on 23 baskets, and after that early flurry from deep, they made only four more 3s the rest of the way.

For a Patriot League program opening its season with three road games, this was always going to be a measuring stick. Colgate has now seen what a top-15 team looks like up close, and the first half showed there is something to work with.

What It Means

Three games into the season, St. John's looks every bit like the team that won the Big East regular season and tournament titles last spring. The Red Storm opened with a 78-63 win over Monmouth behind Hall's 26 points, blew out Iona 104-65 at Madison Square Garden behind Yessoufou, and now handled Colgate with Jackson providing the knockout punch. Three different players have taken turns as the best player on the floor, which is exactly the kind of depth that makes this team dangerous.

The defense is the common thread. St. John's has forced 19 turnovers in each of its last two games and has turned that pressure into easy offense. On Wednesday, the Red Storm scored 32 points in the paint and scored more than a quarter of their total off turnovers.

The real tests start now. Syracuse comes to the Garden on Sunday, and Oregon is waiting later this month. If Jackson, Hall and Yessoufou keep taking turns and Ellis keeps setting the table, St. John's will be a tough out for anyone.

Catch up on St. John's opening win over Monmouth and the rout of Iona at the Garden. For full stats, see the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab) and the official St. John's box score (opens in a new tab).

Sources: ESPN box score, team stats and AP recap, St. John's Athletics box score and play-by-play, Sports Illustrated. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

St. John's hosts Syracuse at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Nov. 15, then faces Siena on Nov. 18. Colgate visits Delaware on Sunday.

Photo: Vincent Dusovic/St. John's Athletics (file photo).