No. 9 Syracuse 77, St. Johns 58: Michael Carter-Williams tallied 17 points, eight assists and six steals to lead the host Orange past the Red Storm, who were playing without head coach Steve Lavin.

C.J. Fair added 17 points and nine rebounds, Brandon Triche poured in 16 points and James Southerland returned from a six-game absence with 13 points for Syracuse (20-3, 8-2 Big East), which extended the country’s longest home winning streak to 37 games.

Freshman JaKarr Sampson led all scorers with 21 points for St. John’s (15-9, 7-5), which played for assistant coach Rico Hines after Lavin left the team to be with his family in California following the passing of his father Sunday morning.

The Orange never trailed and led by double digits for most of the game, getting seven points from Fair to build a 29-14 lead with 7:04 left in the first half. Triche drilled a 3-pointer near the end of the half to send Syracuse into intermission with a 37-24 advantage.

St. John's crawled back to within 48-43 with 11:47 remaining, but Fair, Triche and Southerland scored the next seven points and the Orange held a double-digit lead for the rest of the contest.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Syracuse hit the 20-win mark for the 16th straight season, helping coach Jim Boeheim secure his 35th 20-win season – an NCAA record. … St. John’s, which led the nation with 180 blocks entering Sunday, recorded a season-low two. Freshman Chris Obekpa, the country’s second-leading shot blocker, finished with one. … The Orange, who had not topped 72 points over their last eight games, shot 53.7 percent from the floor – the first time they eclipsed 50 percent in conference play.