St. John's opened its season with a 77-61 non-conference victory over New Orleans on Friday night at Lou Carnesecca Arena in Queens, N.Y., behind the shooting and scoring of guard Marcus LoVett and forward Marvin Clark.

LoVett and Clark combined to score 38 points on 12-of-20 shooting from the field.

LoVett finished with a game-high 23 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including 5-of-10 from 3-point range. Clark added 15 on 5-of-6 shooting in his debut for St. John's after sitting out last season as a transfer from Michigan State.

The rest of the Red Storm, playing its third season under former St. John's and NBA player and general manager Chris Mullin, shot 36.1 percent from the field.

Guards Shamorie Ponds (12 points and a team-high seven rebounds and six assists) and Bashir Ahmed (10 points) also were key contributors as St. John's shot 44.6 percent overall.

New Orleans, which shot 38.9 percent from the field, including 28.6 percent from 3-point range, was led by forward Travin Thibodeaux's 18 points and seven rebounds. Guard Jose Rosa had 10 points and six rebounds.

St. John's scored the last seven points of the first half to take a 38-27 lead at halftime, and the Red Storm led by double digits for the last 17 minutes of the game.

The Red Storm kept New Orleans scoreless in a three-minute stretch in the second half, going on a 9-0 run to take a 63-44 lead with 8:44 left on a layup by LoVett.

New Orleans committed 21 turnovers, which led to 36 points for St. John's. The Red Storm outscored New Orleans 36-11 in points off turnovers.