D.J. Kennedy scored 16 points and No. 15 St. John’s pulled away late to beat visiting South Florida 72-56 on Saturday.

Dwight Hardy scored 14 points, Justin Brownlee had 13 and Paris Horne added 11 for St. John’s (20-10, 12-6 Big East), which trailed 35-30 at halftime.

South Florida led 50-44 with 9:35 remaining before St. John’s ended its upset hopes with a 21-7 run. Sean Evans’ dunk with 3:22 to play put the Red Storm up 64-52. Evans finished with nine points and nine rebounds.

Augustus Gilchrist scored 16 points and Shaun Noriega added 14 for South Florida (9-22, 3-15), which has lost eight of its last nine. Ron Anderson added 13 points and a team-high six rebounds.

St. John’s, which had its six-game winning streak snapped on Thursday with an 84-70 loss at Seton Hall, finishes the regular season in a fourth-place tie in the Big East, its highest league finish since 2002 (third).

St. John’s received the No. 5 seed in next week's Big East Tournament, with the Red Storm set to play Wednesday in the second round against the Seton Hall-Rutgers winner.

South Florida has lost 13 in a row to ranked opponents.