Sandro Mamukelashvili scored a career-high 32 points to lift Seton Hall to a 77-68 victory over St. John's on Friday in the Big East opener for both teams in Newark, N.J.

Mamukelashvili made 12 of 18 shots from the floor to eclipse his previous career high of 30 points, which was set during Seton Hall's 98-92 overtime win over Penn State on Sunday. He was making his return to the court after being ejected in the first half of the Pirates' 78-45 romp over Wagner on Tuesday.

Takal Molson scored 14 points and Myles Cale added 10 for Seton Hall (4-3), which has won three in a row overall and seven straight Big East openers.

Julian Champagnie scored 24 points and Greg Williams Jr. added 12 for the Red Storm (5-2), who have lost 10 of their last 13 meetings with the Pirates.

Mamukelashvili converted a three-point play, a gliding layup and an outlet that resulted in a dunk by Jared Rhoden that gave Seton Hall a 63-55 lead with 4:59 remaining in the second half.

Vince Cole calmly sank a 3-pointer and Champagnie made a layup and a pair of free throws to trim the deficit to three points. The Pirates, however, began to pull away as Molson made a layup and four free throws and Shavar Reynolds and Jared Rhoden each sank a pair from the charity stripe.

Mamukelashvili converted an in-bounds play, Ike Obiagu threw down an emphatic dunk and Cale added a layup to push Seton Hall's lead to 41-30.

Champagnie played a significant role in St. John's rallying from a 10-point deficit to forge a tie at 23-23 with 4:42 remaining in the first half. He had 11 points on 5 of 8 shooting while the remainder of the Red Storm made just 5 of 18 shots.

The teams began their Big East portion of the schedule against one another after conference rivals DePaul and UConn paused basketball activities due to positive COVID-19 tests. The Pirates initially were set to host the Blue Demons on Friday while the Red Storm were slated to play the Huskies on the same day.

--Field Level Media