No. 7 Duke 58, St. John's 47

NEW YORK (AP) Duke had its worst offensive game of the season but the seventh-ranked Blue Devils were able to hold off St. John&#39;s 58-47 on Saturday.<br> <br> Lee Melchionni had 14 of his 16 points in the first half to lead the Blue Devils (21-4), who won their third straight game after losing two in a row.<br> <br> Duke&#39;s big three of J.J. Redick, Shelden Williams and Daniel Ewing scored a total of four points on 0-for-12 shooting in the first half. They supplied almost of Duke&#39;s offense in the second half, combining for all but four of the Blue Devils&#39; points but they didn&#39;t look like themselves.<br> <br> Lamont Hamilton had 15 points for the Red Storm (9-16), who have lost six of seven. They were trying to recreate the magic of two years ago at Madison Square Garden when an unranked St. John&#39;s beat then-No. 6 Duke 72-71.<br> <br> The Red Storm closed within 41-37 with 7:54 left on a reverse layup by Hamilton, but Redick, one of the best shooters in the nation, hit his first 3 of the game 17 seconds later to give the Blue Devils a 44-37 lead. St. John&#39;s didn&#39;t get closer than five points the rest of the way.<br> <br> Redick, Ewing and Melchionni went a combined 6-for-6 from the free throw line over the final 52 seconds for Duke.<br> <br> Redick had 13 points on 2-for-11 shooting, including 1-for-7 from 3-point range, Ewing had nine points and Williams finished with eight points and 10 rebounds.<br> <br> Duke shot just 31.4 percent for the game (16-for-51) and turned the ball over 23 times, one more than St. John&#39;s.<br> <br> Duke led 28-17 at halftime the second-lowest half for both teams this season with the Blue Devils outshooting the Red Storm 27.6 percent to 20.8 percent.<br> <br> Daryll Hill, whose 20.5 average leads St. John&#39;s and is second in the Big East, finished with 10 points on 4-for-19 shooting. He was coming off a career-high 33 points against Syracuse on Wednesday.<br> <br> Duke came into the game averaging 81.6 points. The Blue Devils&#39; previous low this season came in a 59-46 win over Princeton on Jan. 5.<br> <br> This was Duke&#39;s first game without guard Sean Dockery. He injured is knee against Georgia Tech this week and is out indefinitely.<br> <br> Duke improved to 2-0 in Madison Square Garden this season, having beaten Oklahoma 78-67 on Dec. 18.<br> <br> St. John&#39;s dropped to 2-1 against the Atlantic Coast Conference this season as the Red Storm beat Virginia Tech and North Carolina State.

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