Dec 28, 2014 4 min read

Sir’Dominic Pointer had a career-high 24 points in No. 17 St. John’s 82-57 victory over Tulane in the first game of the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival Tripleheader.

Pointer also added a career-high seven steals, grabbed four rebounds, had four assists and blocked two shots. The 25-point margin of victory was the largest for St. John’s this season. The Red Storm won seven straight and are 11-1 for first the time since 1985-86.

“(Pointer is) A microcosm of our team,” St. John’s coach Steve Lavin said. “When we get stops. Dom is so often the player who spearheads our defensive efforts. He unnerves opponents.”

D’Angelo Harrison had 21 points and moved into fourth place on St. John’s career scoring list with 1,829. Rysheed Jordan added 12 points in 22 minutes in his first game action since missing the 66-49 win over Long Beach State on Dec. 22 because of the flu.

Pointer, Harrison and Jordan had 57 of St. John’s 82 points.

“It’s hard to guard all of us,” Harrison said. “When everyone’s going we’re hard to beat.”

Jonathan Stark had 15 points for Tulane (9-3).

St. John’s used a 39-13 run spanning the final 15:34 to go into the half with a 47-22 advantage.

The key to the offensive run was St. John’s transition game. The Red Storm turned 11 first-half turnovers into 14 points. For the game, St. John’s forced 17 turnovers.

No. 6 Wisconsin 68, Buffalo 56: Frank Kaminsky had 25 points and 11 rebounds, leading No. 6 Wisconsin to a 68-56 victory over Buffalo.

Sam Dekker added 13 points for Wisconsin (12-1), which opens Big Ten play on Wednesday against Penn State.

Justin Moss led four Bulls (7-3) in double figures with 14 points.

Other than Kaminsky, the Badgers had a poor first half. While the senior forward went 5 of 10 from the field, the rest of the team was 5 of 22, and Wisconsin trailed 27-26 at the break. It was only the second time this season the Badgers faced a deficit at half.

No. 23 Northern Iowa 74, South Dakota State 63: Nate Buss scored 14 points Northern Iowa closed out nonconference play with a victory over South Dakota State.

Wes Washpun added 12 points, and Seth Tuttle had 11 for the Panthers (11-1). George Marshall had 16 points for South Dakota State (9-5).

Syracuse 85, Long Beach State 67: Michael Gbinije scored a career-high 24 points, Rakeem Christmas added 24 points and 10 rebounds, and Syracuse beat Long Beach State 85-67.

It was the second straight win for Syracuse (8-4), which averted its fifth nonconference loss of the season.

Long Beach State (5-9) dropped to 0-9 on the road and has lost five straight since a 68-57 victory over Nevada in early December.

Connecticut 81, Central Connecticut 48: Ryan Boatright scored 18 points and backcourt mate Rodney Purvis added 14 as defending national champion UConn routed Central Connecticut 81-48.

Sophomore forward Kentan Facey had his first career double-double for the Huskies (6-4), scoring 12 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Amida Brimah also scored 12 points, and Omar Calhoun chipped in with 11.

Wake Forest 65, Richmond 63: Devin Thomas tipped in a shot by Codi Miller-McIntyre as the buzzer sounded Sunday and Wake Forest survived a frenetic comeback by Richmond and beat the host Spiders 65-63.

The Demon Deacons (7-6) were outscored 27-14 over a long stretch of the second half and trailed 61-57 with about 40 seconds to play, but Miller-McIntyre banked in a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left and then lofted a desperate shot toward the basket that Thomas had no time to do anything with but tip it.

Alabama 56, UCLA 50: Ricky Tarrant scored a season-high 24 points to lead Alabama to a 56-50 victory over visiting UCLA for the Bruins’ third straight loss.

Levi Randolph hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final 33 seconds to help the Crimson Tide (9-3) seal its third win in a row.

Bryce Alford led the Bruins (8-5) with 16 points but missed two 3-pointers over the final 38 seconds.