Paul Scruggs scored 22 points and Ryan Welage added 19 as host Xavier continued its late-season surge with an 81-68 victory over St. John's in their Big East regular-season finale Saturday in Cincinnati.

The Musketeers (17-14, 9-9) won for the sixth time in seven games despite leading scorer Naji Marshall sitting out. Marshall, who scored 31 in Xavier's win at St. John's on Feb. 28, tweaked his ankle early in the second half of Tuesday's loss at Butler.

Xavier found plenty of ways to compensate for Marshall's absence thanks to the performances of Scruggs and Welage and secured the fifth seed in the Big East Tournament. The Musketeers will play Georgetown on Thursday afternoon.

Scruggs shot 7 of 18 in finishing two points shy of his career high, and he grabbed six rebounds. Welage hit five 3-pointers, shot 7 of 11 and reached double figures for the seventh time and first time since Dec. 29 against DePaul.

Zach Hankins and Kyle Castlin added 12 points apiece for Xavier, which shot 51.9 percent and made 11 of 26 3-point attempts.

St. John's (20-11, 8-10) lost its third straight game since beating Seton Hall at home two weeks ago. The Red Storm also cost themselves a chance at clinching the three seed in the Big East tournament for the first time since 2000 and tumbled to the seventh seed where they will face Butler on Wednesday night.

LJ Figueroa's 20 points led St. John's, which dropped its ninth straight game to Xavier. Shamorie Ponds added 19 but shot 6-of-15 from the floor, and the Red Storm were outscored 20-9 in the final 5:51.

Xavier took its first double-digit lead at 57-47 on a 3-point play by Scruggs with 8:54 remaining, but the Red Storm countered with a 10-2 spurt to get within 59-57 on a 3-pointer by Figueroa with 6:15 left.

Once again, Xavier came up with another response to St. John's and pushed the lead to 69-59 on an uncontested left-corner 3-pointer by Welage with 3:42 left. About a minute later, Welage drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 72-61 and clinch the win.

Xavier scored the first eight points and raced out to a 10-2 lead, but St. John's quickly came back and took its first lead at 31-30 on a dunk by Figueroa with 4:27 left.

Xavier ended the first half with an 8-2 run and held a 38-33 lead at halftime.

--Field Level Media