LOS ANGELES -- No. 16 Arizona State put St. John's away in the closing minutes of an 82-70 win Friday at Staples -- though the winning push came one half later than Sun Devils head coach Bobby Hurley may have liked.

"I felt there was an opportunity late in the (first) half, if we made a few more plays on offense, to maybe make it a different game and not the struggle it became," Hurley said. "Hopefully, moving forward, we'll finish halves better."

At 11-0 to close the game, Arizona State (8-0) finished the second half better than the first Friday. The Sun Devils built a big first-half lead, then weathered a second-half St. John's storm in the first game of the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic tripleheader.

The Sun Devils went on a 19-3 run in a first half that favored their up-tempo style, and led by as many as 18 points. Arizona State hit six of its first eight 3-point attempts, including a 3-of-3 start from freshman forward Vitaliy Shibel, who scored a career-high 11 points.

St. John's (8-2) cut a 12-point halftime deficit in half to start the second half and, after a 7-0 Arizona State run, chipped away for the ensuing 14 minutes.

The Red Storm held Arizona State without a point for a 3:05 stretch, flipping a tempo that favored the Pac-12 Conference team for the first 20 minutes into a pace more befitting the Big East-based St. John's.

Junior forward Tariq Owens threw down a couple of dunks and connected on a 3-pointer in that stretch to power the Red Storm.

"Tariq, he's got so many skills," St. John's coach Chris Mullin said. "Those are shots he makes routinely (in practice) and I was glad he made those. We're going to need those moving forward...He's always great on defense, he's one of the smartest team guys we have."

As St. John's offense came alive, its defense clamped down, and the Red Storm settled into a more physical game befitting their strengths.

"We're quick defensively and were able to use our length," he said. "We did a pretty good job, but Romello White was just the difference."

White earned the game's Most Valuable Player award after producing game-highs of 22 points and nine rebounds. His layup with 1:25 remaining effectively sealed the win for Arizona State.

"Every shot I put up, they challenged me," White said, speaking to the game's physicality. "Sometimes I wasn't getting calls, so I felt like I just had to go up strong."

St. John's sophomore guard Shamorie Ponds cut the deficit to one on a layup with 2:41 left. After Arizona State senior guard Kodi Justice responded with 3-pointer, Ponds had a pull-up jump shot attempt spin around the rim and off in a moment indicative of the 20.2-point-per-game scorer's night.

Ponds finished with 19 points but shot just 6 of 23 from the floor, which Hurley credited to the defensive efforts of senior guard Shannon Evans II.

Arizona State's leading scorer, senior guard Tra Holder, endured a similarly rough night from the field, going 2 of 12 from the field and scoring seven points.

Helping to pick up the slack were Evans, who scored 18 points with a game-high six assists, and Justice, who added 15 points.

Clark scored 18 points and Owens had 17 for the Red Storm. Redshirt sophomore guard Justin Simon -- a product of nearby Temecula, Calif., who had a sizable cheering contingent in attendance -- finished with six points, five rebounds and a team-high five assists.

NOTES: Arizona State freshman F Vitaliy Shibel came into Friday's game just 3 of 17 from behind the 3-point line. He went 3 of 5 against St. John's. ... Arizona State's 23-of-27 shooting from the free-throw line (85.2 percent) was its second-best effort of the season behind a 92 percent game against Xavier on Nov. 24. ... The 14 turnovers St. John's forced tied its season low. The other came in the Red Storm's only other loss, Nov. 24 vs. Missouri.