Butler's season ended Wednesday afternoon with a 76-63 loss to St. John's in the first game of the 2023 BIG EAST Tournament.
 
The No. 9 seed Bulldogs and No. 8 seed St. John's met at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
 
Butler finishes the 2022-23 campaign with a record of 14-18. St. John's (18-14) advances to play the tournament's top seed Marquette Thursday afternoon.
 
TOP DAWG PERFORMANCE: Sophomore Simas Lukosius scored a game-high 23 points for the Bulldogs, his second-best output of the season. He made eight of his 15 attempts from the field, adding four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:

• St. John's closed the first half by scoring 15 of the final 21 points to turn a six-point advantage with six minutes remaining in the half into a 44-29 halftime advantage.
• The Red Storm's lead got as high as 21 with 15:39 remaining in the game (54-33) before the Bulldogs mounted a comeback.
• Butler came all the way back to single digits with 3:44 remaining on a Lukosius three-pointer (70-61) before St. John's put the game out of reach by scoring the next six points.

 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:

• Jalen Thomas had 20 points for the Bulldogs, a season-high for the first-year Butler player. He went 10-for-16 from the field.
• Myles Tate scored a season-high 10 points in a season-high 20 points.
• St. John's had 20 offensive rebounds to take an overall 53-28 rebounding advantage overall.
• Five Red Storm players scored in double figures, led by 19 points from Joel Soriano. He added 15 rebounds for a double-double.
• Butler only committed 11 turnovers, but shot 39 percent from the field.

 
OF NOTE:

• Butler was without Manny Bates and Eric Hunter Jr., who missed the game due to not meeting the academic expectations of the program.
• Butler and St. John's split the regular season series.
• The Bulldogs did get Ali Ali back in the line-up after he missed the last two games due to concussion symptoms.