St. John’s 77, Seton Hall 76: JaKarr Sampson scored 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting as the Red Storm held off the visiting Pirates to pick up their first Big East victory.

Orlando Sanchez added 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting and D’Angelo Harrison collected 16 points and six rebounds for St. John’s (11-8, 1-5 Big East), which shot 50.9 percent from the field. Jamal Branch chipped in 11 points off the bench for the Red Storm.

Sterling Gibbs scored five of his 20 points in the final two minutes and Brian Oliver hit five 3-pointers en route to 19 points to lead Seton Hall (11-8, 2-4). Fuquan Edwin and Patrik Auda added 12 points apiece as the Pirates fell for the fourth time in five games.

Seton Hall trailed by 17 points with nine minutes left but battled all the way back to within 76-73 after Edwin’s three-point play with 27 seconds remaining. Harrison missed two free throws at the other end and the teams traded a free throw before Gibbs hit two from the line with five seconds left to cut it to one, but the Pirates never got another good chance.

Seton Hall raced out to a 13-3 lead but St. John’s scored on five straight possessions to climb back into the game and ended the opening half with a 12-4 burst to take a 35-29 lead into the locker room. The Pirates kept it close early in the second period and were within 50-47 after Oliver’s 3-pointer with just over 12 minutes left before Branch and Sampson combined on a 13-0 run to spread it back out.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Seton Hall committed 19 turnovers and handed out just eight assists. … The Pirates entered the game last in the Big East in 3-point defense but held St. John’s to 3-of-12 from beyond the arc. … The Red Storm have won two straight after an out-of-conference win over Dartmouth on Saturday.