Joel Soriano scored five of his 16 points in overtime as St. John's outlasted underdog New Jersey Institute of Technology, 77-68 on Saturday at the Red Storm's on-campus arena in Queens, New York.

Montez Mathis' basket broke a tie at 65 with 3:48 to go in the extra session and put the Red Storm ahead to stay, and Soriano added a three-point play for a 70-65 lead with 2:57 to go in OT. NJIT didn't get closer than two after that and never had a chance to tie or take the lead.

Posh Alexander returned after missing one game with a foot injury and had 16 points and seven assists for the Red Storm (5-1), which also received 14 points and 10 rebounds from Julian Champagnie.

Dylan O'Hearn scored 19 points and James Lee had 17 for NJIT (2-3), which rallied from a 16-point deficit in the final 11 minutes of regulation to force overtime.

After Lee scored on a pass from O'Hearn to cut the deficit to 60-59, Dylan Addae-Wusu answered for the Red Storm with a basket. But NJIT's O'Hearn made two foul shots to make it 62-61, St. John's with 2:20 to go in the second half.

After Champagnie made only one of two free throws, O'Hearn hit a bank shot in the lane to tie the score at 63 with 1:44 left. After the Red Storm missed three shots on the next possession, Matt Faw missed inside for NJIT and after a replay review, the ball was ruled to be off Faw.

St. John's had the ball with 26 seconds left in regulation but Alexander nearly lost the ball while trying to run the clock down for the last shot, and eventually had to launch a desperation three-point attempt that was way off, forcing OT.

Alexander took a hard fall to the floor after a foul by Antwuan Butler with exactly 12 minutes left to play. After the stoppage of play for the media timeout, Alexander made both free throws for a 53-42 St. John's lead. He then scored on a fast-break layup and assisted on Stef Smith's three-pointer, which put the hosts ahead, 58-42 with 11:02 left.

--Field Level Media