Trevon Bluiett had 27 points and Kaiser Gates added 16 points to lead the No. 3 Xavier Musketeers to an 88-60 win over the St. John's Red Storm in a Big East Tournament quarterfinals matchup on Thursday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

Marvin Clark II had 18 points and Shamorie Ponds added 15 for the Red Storm, who lost for the third time to Xavier this season to fall to 16-17 on the year.

The Musketeers went on a 15-6 run to start the second half and used a 14-4 stretch midway through the half to go up by 20-plus. Bluiett had 10 of his points during that second stretch, and he finished the game shooting 8-for-18 from the field after starting 2-for-8.

J.P. Macura added six rebounds, five assists and four steals for the Musketeers, who won each of those categories as a team. Xavier out-rebounded St. John's, 42-30 and added an 18-6 assist advantage and an 8-6 steals advantage.

Kerem Kanter added 12 points for the Musketeers, who shot 48 percent from the field and 43 percent from 3-point range.

Xavier advances to the semifinals of the conference tournament on Friday, where they will meet Providence, a 72-68 overtime winner over Creighton. The Musketeers suffered one of their three conference losses to Providence this season.

Justin Simon added 14 points for the Red Storm, who shot 36 percent from the field and 22 percent from 3-point range. Simon had 12 of his points in the first half on 5-for-7 shooting, but he went 1-for-4 in the second half.

St. John's kept it close early, but Xavier went on a 10-0 run midway through the first half to go from five behind to up five and eventually went into halftime up 33-29.

Bluiett had nine points on the first half despite 1-for-6 shooting from 3-point range. Gates had seven of his points in the first half on 3-for-3 shooting.

--Field Level Media