Marvin Bagley III, No. 4 Duke Upset by St. John's 81-77

St. John's scored a massive upset on Saturday with an 81-77 victory over No. 4 Duke at Madison Square Garden. 

Coming into play with a 10-13 record, the Red Storm earned their biggest win of the season by shooting 47.1 percent from three-point range and forcing the Blue Devils to commit 18 turnovers. 

Shamorie Ponds, who had two points on 0-of-12 shooting against Butler last Saturday, led the way for St. John's on offense with 33 points. His layup and three-pointer on back-to-back possessions put the Red Storm back up by four after Duke took a 73-72 lead. 

The Blue Devils had a chance to tie the score in the final seconds, but Grayson Allen's three-pointer clanked off the iron to secure their second loss in the past three games. 

Duke's offense, ranked second in the nation with 90.2 points per game, was unable to build any sustained momentum because of those turnovers. Marvin Bagley III committed six of them on his own. Wendell Carter Jr. had his 11th double-double of the season with 14 points and 15 rebounds in defeat. 

While Duke has traditionally dominated its rivalry against St. John's with a 16-7 record, the last six games at Madison Square Garden have seen each team win three times. 

Adding to the surprise element of this loss for Duke, ESPN Stats & Info noted how long it had been since St. John's last won a game this season:

The Red Storm are still searching for their first conference win, owning a 0-11 record against Big East competition. Their best victory of the year, prior to Saturday, was against a Nebraska team that is No. 60 in the current RPI standings, and six of their 11 wins were against teams outside the RPI top 150.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports noted the implications a loss like this could have for Duke looking ahead to the NCAA tournament:

Defense has been the Achilles' heel for the Blue Devils this year. They were ranked 69th in defensive efficiency and tied for 168th in the nation with 72 points allowed per game coming into Saturday. 

St. John's was able to exploit that weakness in the win. Ponds, playing the hero role, had some pointed comments about the team's struggles to Zach Braziller of the New York Post before going off against Duke:

Head coach Chris Mullin, now in his third season at St. John's, said after the win he felt his team was playing better despite not having any victories in January to show for it:

This was a marquee win that Mullin needed. He's just 33-56 since taking over the Red Storm prior to the 2015-16 season and is likely to miss the NCAA tournament for the third straight season. 

Beating Duke is the ultimate feather in Mullin's cap as he looks to move forward with this program. There's still a lot of work ahead for him and his coaching staff, but there are at least pieces in place to build around. 

The Blue Devils have an enormous ceiling because players like Bagley, Allen, Carter and Gary Trent Jr. are so talented. But Mike Krzyzewski has a lot of things to clean up with this bunch if they want to be in the conversation for a national title when the NCAA tournament begins next month.