St. John’s 85, Seton Hall 72: Sir’Dominic Pointer had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and the Red Storm pulled away late in the second half to sink the visiting Pirates at Carnesecca Arena in Queens.

Phil Greene IV added 20 points, including four 3-pointers, for St. John’s (18-9, 7-7 Big East), which won for the fourth time in its last five games to boost its NCAA Tournament chances. The Red Storm, who also received 18 points and six assists from Rysheed Jordan and 12 points from D'Angelo Harrison, shot 48.4 percent from the field and tied a season high with 11 3-pointers in 26 attempts.

Freshman Isaiah Whitehead had 19 points to pace Seton Hall (15-12, 5-10), which played without suspended leading scorer Sterling Gibbs and has lost six straight and nine of its last 11 contests. Khadeen Carrington added 16 points, and Angel Delgado had nine points and 13 rebounds for the Pirates, who finished with a 40-39 rebound edge but shot 35.3 percent from the floor in the second half.

A Whitehead 3-pointer tied things up at 59 with 9:43 remaining, but Jamal Branch and Greene drilled treys to highlight a 10-0 St. John’s run, giving the hosts the contest’s first double-digit lead at 69-59 with 5:52 to go. Seton Hall was only able to get within eight points from there as the Red Storm got 3-pointers from Jordan and Pointer in the final three minutes to pull away.

The first half was high scoring and tightly contested, featuring nine ties and 11 lead changes. Starting with 7:10 to play in the half, St. John’s went on a 7-0 run to take a 32-26 lead, but Seton Hall scored the next five points and the Red Storm wound up entering intermission with a 41-40 advantage.

GAME NOTEBOOK: St. John’s finished 9-1 at Carnesecca Arena this season and is 31-4 at the Queens venue over the last four seasons. … Seton Hall has now lost its last five road games versus St. John’s. … Harrison has scored in double figures in 103 of his 119 career games.