NEW YORK (AP) — Posh Alexander scored 16 points and St. John’s smothered No. 3 Villanova, upsetting the ice-cold Wildcats 70-59 on Wednesday night to halt their nine-game winning streak.

Julian Champagnie had 14 points — all in the second half — and a career-high 13 rebounds for the suddenly surging Red Storm (12-7, 6-6 Big East), who have won five straight games and six of seven.

With active hands all over the court, St. John’s turned up its pressure defense and forced the experienced Wildcats (11-2, 6-1) into 17 turnovers and 32% shooting in an ugly performance. Villanova fell behind 58-41 with about 6:45 left and was held 12 points below its previous season low for its first loss since Nov. 28 to Virginia Tech in overtime.

Villanova went nearly four weeks between games because of coronavirus issues before returning with a Jan. 19 win over Seton Hall.

St. John’s has been a surprising thorn in Villanova’s side recently, with wins over a top-ranked Wildcats team in February 2018 and against the defending national champions in 2019.

The latest victory gave St. John’s its first four-game Big East winning streak since the 2014-15 NCAA Tournament team. Three of those wins came on the road.

Alexander, an energetic freshman guard who leads the Big East in steals, added six assists and four rebounds.

Caleb Daniels scored 16 points for Villanova, and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl had 14.

Champagnie, the Big East’s leading scorer at 19.8 points per game coming in, shot 0 for 4 in the first half. Alexander picked up the slack with 10 points and St. John’s went into the locker room with a 30-27 advantage.

STRANGE SURROUNDINGS

The pandemic has put all St. John’s home games on campus with no fans permitted, so this marked the first time Villanova played at 5,602-seat Carnesecca Arena since January 1994. The teams normally meet at Madison Square Garden, where St. John’s usually plays many of its high-profile games. Villanova is the most frequent opponent in program history.

Wildcats coach Jay Wright recalled visiting as a Villanova assistant and watching high school playoff games in the building. He talked to his team about what to expect.

“These guys, I didn’t even know if they knew where it was or anything,” Wright recounted Tuesday. “So I said, `Just so you know, we’re going into a tough, tight arena that they press in and they can make it really tough for you. I don’t want you being surprised when we don’t roll up to The Garden.’”

Villanova was the first top-5 opponent to play in the Queens gym since St. John’s lost 72-71 to No. 2 Syracuse in February 1980, the first season of the original Big East. The last time St. John beat a top-3 team on campus, Sonny Dove had 28 points and 24 rebounds in a 1966 win over No. 3 Saint Joseph’s during Hall of Fame coach Lou Carnesecca’s first season at the helm.

SCHEDULE SHUFFLE

Villanova was supposed to host Xavier on Sunday, but that game was postponed Tuesday because of COVID-19 issues in the Musketeers’ program and replaced Wednesday with a home game against Georgetown that had been slated for Feb. 17.

Wright acknowledged Tuesday that coach Mark Few of top-ranked Gonzaga, also freed up this weekend and eager to test his West Coast Conference team, had called about potentially setting up a No. 1 vs. No. 3 showdown on Super Bowl Sunday.

“Oh, definitely. He does all the time. He’s the master scheduler,” Wright said. “But I told him, I said: `Our priority has to be the Big East first. If we can get a Big East game, we’ve got to play the Big East game. We owe it to the Big East.'”

WELCOME BACK

St. John’s has taken off despite a back injury to starting guard Greg Williams Jr. that caused him to miss the previous three games and nearly all of the past five. Williams, who entered averaging 10.9 points per game, came off the bench in the first half and threw down a one-handed, fast-break dunk with authority to the delight of the St. John’s bench. Those were his only points in four minutes on the court.

UP NEXT

Villanova: Tries to bounce back and earn a season sweep of Georgetown after a 76-63 road victory on Dec. 11.

St. John’s: Saturday at Providence, which has won nine of the past 11 meetings.

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More AP college basketball: http://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

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